RANGAPPA Vs. OBULAMMA AND FIVE ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the order of the Junior Civil Judge, Madakasira, deciding to take up the issue relating to jurisdiction of the Court in O.S. No.112 of 1988 as a preliminary issue, the plaintiff therein filed the present revision petition.

(2.) THE petitioner -plaintiff filed the said suit against the respondent -defendants for permanent injunction restraining them from interfering with his possession of the suit schedule land. That suit was instituted in the year 1988. For some reason or the other, the trial Court could not commence the trial in that suit. It appears that the defendants have amended the written statement in August, 2000 by taking a plea that the Civil Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the said suit. Immediately thereafter, they filed I.A. No.455 of 2000 under Order XIV, Rule 2 CPC requesting the trial Court to take up the issue - "whether this Court has jurisdiction to entertain the suit - - as a preliminary issue. The learned trial Judge has allowed the said I.A., and decided to settle that issue as a preliminary issue. It is the said order that is now challenged in this revision petition.

(3.) A close reading of sub -rule (2) clearly indicates that the Court can take up a legal issue relating to the jurisdiction of the Court or a statutory bar to the suit as a preliminary issue.