MADHAVDAS DEVIDAS Vs. VITHALDAS VASUDEODAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from a decision of Shah J., on appeal from an order refusing to sat aside an award. It is necessary to stale the facts, because a preliminary point has been taken before us that Shah J. having dismissed the appeal, no appeal lies now under the Letters Patent to a Division Bench of this Court.

(2.) NOW, an appeal lies to a Division Bench of this Court from a judgment of a single Judge under the Letters Patent; but it is contended on behalf of the respondents that this right of appeal given by the Letters Patent is taken away by the provisions of Section 39, Arbitration Act. That section provides:

(3.) NOW, this matter has not come before this Court, so far as we are aware, before this. The question under Section 39 (1), however, did come up before this Court in Original Side Appeal in Ranchhoddas Purshottam & Co. v. Ratanji Virpal & Co., O. C. J. Appeal No. 22 of 1942, D/8- 10-1942, and the view which was then taken was that, where an order under the Arbitration Act did not come within the purview of Clauses (i) to (vi) of Section 39 (1), it was not appealable. No reference seems to have been made to the Letters Patent; but inasmuch as prior to the Arbitration Act, which was an Act of 1940, an appeal under the Letters Patent lay to this Court, the learned Judges who disposed of the appeal must have had in their mind the appeal which was provided from a decision of a single Judge to a Division Bench of this Court under the Letters Patent. The question under Sub-section (2) of Section 39 has, also, been raised in the other High Courts, and there have been two views in regard to the question as to whether that sub-section takes away the right of appeal given by the Letters Patent. Whereas the Madras High Court in Radhakrishnamurthy v. Ethirajulu Chatty & Co., I.l.r. (1945) Mad. 564, has taken the view that no appeal lies, the Lahore and the East Punjab High Courts have in Hanuman Chamber of Commerce v. Jossa Ram Sira Nanda,A.I.R. (35) 1948 Lah. 64 and Banwari Lal v. Hindu College, Delhi, A.i.r. (36) 1949 E. P. 165, taken the view that the right of appeal under the Letters Patent is not affected by the section.