HARNAM SINGH Vs. SHIROMANI GURDWARA PRABANDHAK COMMITTEE AMRITSAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has been filed under S. 24 read with S. 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Art. 227 of the Constitution of India for transfer of the application moved under S. 142 of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, which is pending before the Sikh Gurdwaras Judicial Commission, Amritsar, (hereinafter referred to as 'the Commission' ).

(2.) IT may be pointed out at the outset that Chapter VII, starting with S. 70 of the aforesaid Act inter alia deals with the constitution of the Commission, the appointment and removal of its members, the extent of jurisdiction and the procedure to be adopted by the Commission Admittedly, the Commission is the creation of a special statute, that is, the aforesaid Act. Learned counsel for the petitioners did not contend before me that the Commission could be said to be a Court subordinate to the High Court as such he pressed his petition by invoking Art. 227 of the Commission could be said to be a Court subordinate to the High Court as such he pressed this petition by invoking Art. 227 of the Constitution, the invocation of which was not disputed by the learned counsel for the respondents.

(3.) ALL the same the first and the foremost hurdle before the petitioners is that admittedly the Commission, functioning at Amritsar is the only Commission having jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the abovementioned application under S. 142 of the Act. That being so, the application cannot conceivably be transferred to any other Commission, since there is none else. Tikka Harbhajan Singh v. Haribachan Singh, 1966 Cur LJ 543 (1), by which a petition pending before a Financial Commissioner was transferred by this Court to another Financial Commissioner has no relevance to the present case. Faced with this situation learned counsel for the petitioners contended that the application was unable to seek support to the contention either on principle or on authority, the simple reason being that the abovesaid Act, which is a special statute, exclusively confers the jurisdiction on the Commission. Furthermore, Art. 227 bestows power of superintendence over the Commission, Learned counsel for the petitioners was unable to show how in the exercise of this power the case can be transferred to this Court and tried on the original side.