JAGANNATH GANBAJI CHIKHALE Vs. GULABRAO RAGHOBAJI BOBDE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LAST week these letters patent appeals were before us but as we felt some doubt whether any such appeal could lie we directed that these matters be placed before us for hearing on the question, whether an appeal lies under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the decision of a Single Judge given in a special civil application filed under Article 227 of the Constitution.

(2.) CLAUSE 15 of the Letters Patent of this High Court which is in similar words as that of Calcutta and Madras High Courts, is as follows, so far as is relevant to the present case: - And we further ordain that an appeal shall lie to the said High Court of Judicature & Bombay from the judgment (not being a judgment passed in the exercise of appellate jurisdiction in respect of a decree or order made in the exercise of appellate jurisdiction by a Court subject to the superintendence of the said High Court and not being an order made in the exercise of revisional jurisdiction and not being a sentence or order passed or made in the exercise of the power of superintendence under the provisions of Section 107 of the Government of India Act, or in the exercise of criminal jurisdiction) of one Judge of the said High Court or one Judge of any Division Court, pursuant to Section 108 of the Government of India Act.... The subsequent portion can have no - possible application and therefore, need not be reproduced. A reading of this clause shows that an appeal is provided by Clause 15 against the judgment of a Single Judge within the Court itself. While providing for this appeal, exceptions have been created and the exceptions are four in number: -(1) a judgment rendered by a Single Judge exercising appellate jurisdiction in respect of a decree which is made in the exercise of appellate jurisdiction by a subordinate Court -in common parlance called the second appellate jurisdiction, (2) an order rendered by a Single Judge in the exercise of revisional jurisdiction of the High Court, (3) an order or sentence rendered by a Single Judge in the exercise of powers of superintendence of the High Court under the provisions of Section 107 of the Government of India Act, 1915, and (4) an order rendered in the exercise of criminal jurisdiction. These are the four exceptions, to an appeal as a matter of right, against the judgment of the Single Judge within the Court. In respect of the first exception, a provision is made for an appeal on condition that the Judge, who decided the matter, gives a certificate that the matter is one fit for an appeal under Clause 15 and that is provided by the second part of the clause which we have omitted.

(3.) IT is well settled that a right of appeal can only be given by a statute, there being no general right of appeal against the decision of one Court to another Court. It would be much more so in the case where a right of appeal is claimed from the judgment of a Single Judge to a larger Bench within the same Court. Unless, therefore, the right to appeal is discernible from the provisions of the clause itself, no such right can exist.