UNION OF INDIA Vs. NALINI RANJAN GUHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court from an order passed by Bachawat J. on 5-5-1953, sitting- singly. By that order he directed that, all matters in difference between the petitioner, the Union of India, and the respondent be referred to the arbitration of Mr. K.K. Basu, Barrister-at-law. The petitioner asks for a certificate from this Court to prefer an appeal from that order.

(2.) IN view of the several patent objections to the petition, it is surprising that such a petition should have been filed at all. . The petition purports to ask for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and it must be presumed that the said prayer was intended to be made under the Constitution of INdia. But the Constitution is not even named in the petition. The petitioner refers only to the INdian Arbitration Act and seems to have been advised that even under that Act, this Court could be asked to grant a certificate for the purposes of leave to the Supreme Court. Mr. Kar, 'representing the petitioner, drew our attention to Sub-section (2) of Section 39, INdian Arbitration' Act where it is provided that nothing in Section 39 would affect or take away any right to appeal to the Supreme. Court. He seems to have thought that a right of appeal to the Supreme Court was implied in Sub-section (2) of Section 39, Arbitration Act and if such a right existed, his client could properly ask this Court for a certificate. The Impression upon which the petitioner acted was Obviously erroneous. Section 39, Arbitration Act cannot possibly confer any jurisdiction on the Supreme Court which, that court does not possess under the Constitution itself. The section mentions His Majesty-in-Council and probably it has now been adapted so as to substitute a reference to the Supreme Court, although the adaptation Was not shown to us. But, in any event, the section has only been "adapted", which means it has been brought into conformity, with the Constitution. The INdian" Parliament has not yet legislated and conferred some further Jurisdiction on the Supreme Court. IN so far as the present petition purports to proceed under the provisions of the Arbitration Act, it is clearly misconceived.

(3.) MR. Kar submitted that he would rely on Art, 135, but even that Article could not avail him in the least. In the first place, in order to make, out a right of appeal under that Article, he had to establish that such an appeal lay to the Federal Court immediately before the commencement of the Constitution. MR. Kar was unable to contend that immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, an appeal would lie to the Federal Court from an order of the present kind passed by a Judge of the High Court, sitting singly. In the second place, Article 135 does not seem to contemplate any certificate to be granted by the High Court at all. The provisions for a certificate are incorported only in Arts. 132, 133 and 134. Article 135 is expressed in general terms and merely provides that the Supreme Court shall also have some further Jurisdiction with respect to matters to which provisions of Article 133 or Article 134 do not apply, provided an appeal lay in such matters to the Federal Court immediately before, the commencement of the Constitution. Nothing is said in the Article as regards certificate to be granted by the High Court.