RAKU BIBI Vs. KHAJA MAHOMED MUSA KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case an application was made to Mr. Justice Loch and Mr. Justice Mitter to review a judgment which they had passed. Mr. Justice Mitter thought that the review ought to be granted. Mr. Justice Loch who was the senior Judge thought that the application ought to be rejected, and it was rejected. From this decision an appeal has been preferred under section 15 of the Letters Patent, but a preliminary objection is taken that this is not a case in which an appeal lies. There is no doubt that the preliminary objection ought to prevail. The whole object of the provision of Act VIII of 1859 regarding reviews of judgments is that the Court which passed the decree may re-consider the case if it thinks fit, and that as a general rule Judges are not to review a decision of other Judges (see section 379). Section 378 declares that the order whether for rejecting the application or granting the review shall be final. It appears to me that the order rejecting the review was not a function which could be performed by the High Court generally, but merely by the Court which passed the original decision; and that the order rejecting a review is not a judgment within the meaning of section 15 of the Letters Patent, I do not think that the High Court at Madras intended to give any opinion to the effect that an order rejecting a review was a judgment within section 15 of the Letters Patent, although in the case cited they expressed their opinion in general terms which might possibly embrace such a case. If they had had the question of rejecting a review before their minds when they decided the case, they would probably have excepted it from the general rule which they laid down. This appeal is rejected with costs.