AMALENDU DUTTA Vs. GUMTI DEVI SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Civil Reference has arisen out of the judgment and order, dated 15.06.20C4, passed by the learned District Judge, Shillong, in RFA (TCA) No. 2(h)/2003, whereby the learned Single Judge, while allowing the appeal, made a reference to the High Court observing thus, "...pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munisff is uncertain till date and thereby causing lots of confusion and inconvenience to the litigants, lawyers and Courts. Therefore, I am of the view that the matter need to be referred to the Hon'ble High Court for the valuable opinion and direction". In terms of the directions given by Hon'ble the Chief Justice by order, dated 18.06.2004, passed in Civil Reference, the reference has been laid before this Court on the judicial side.

(2.) I have heard Ms. A. Pal, learned Counsel, who had appeared on behalf of the appellant in RFA (TCA) No. 2 (H)/2003 aforementioned. Looking into the importance of the subj ect matter of the reference, I have also heard Mr. SR Sen, learned Senior counsel, as Amicus Curiae.

(3.) For proper appreciation of the subject of reference, the history of the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munsiff, at Shillong, needs to be traced and in doing so, what needs to be borne in mind is that in the entire State of Meghalaya, there is only one Court of Munsiff and the same is located at Shillong. The question raised in the reference is, in short, this what is the present pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munsiff at Shillong ?