KAVUPADICKAL DEVASWOM Vs. NARAYANAN POTTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision petitioner's appeal, A. S. No. 44 of 1979, against the decree and judgment in O. S. No. 91 of 1975, in which the revision petitioner was the defendant, having been dismissed stating "No appeal will lie. Therefore the appeal is dismissed", this revision has been preferred by him. The plaintiff's suit for the recovery of a sum of Rs. 500 by way of arrears of salary with interest and costs was filed, registered and tried as an original suit.

(2.) Sri D. V. Radhakrishnan, the counsel for the revision petitioner, submitted that the dismissal of the appeal without stating why the appeal would not lie, is clearly illegal and the order is bound to be set aside for that reason alone. It is difficult to guess what really worked in the mind of the Judge when he dismissed the appeal stating that the appeal would not lie, inasmuch as the reason for holding that the appeal would not lie has not been stated. The counsel for the respondent, Sri M. K. Narayana Menon, sought to justify the order stating that under S.96(4) of he Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by Act 104 of 1976 (for short the amended Code) no appeal shall lie, except on a question of law, from a decree in any suit of the nature cognizable by Courts of Small Causes, when the amount or value of the subject matter of the original suit does not exceed three thousand rupees.

(3.) To hold that under sub-s.(4) of S.96 of the amended Code, no appeal shall lie, it should be shown that, (1) no question of law arises; (2) the appeal is from a decree in a suit of the nature cognizable by Courts of Small Causes; and (3) the amount or value of the subject matter of the original suit does not exceed three thousand rupees. In this case it is true that the amount or value of the subject matter of the original suit was less than Rs. 3,000, it being Rs. 500 or thereabout; it might even be that the decree was in a suit of the nature cognizable by Courts of Small Causes; nevertheless, an appeal might be competent if a question of law is involved.