BABA DAI Vs. MUNESHWAR JHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the defendant in a suit for partition of the joint properties consisting of lands and for an allotment of separate areas on the basis of half share in the family properties. The lands are situated in village Chandol Barahi in the district of Saharsa. The suit was dismissed but the appeal by the plaintiffs was allowed leading to the present second appeal.

(2.) A very short question was raised in this appeal. It was contended by the appellant that the first appellate Court had no jurisdiction to hear and dispose of the appeal because the admitted value of the property involved in the suit was Rs. 10,000/- and that was the value given in the plaint and the grounds of appeal in the lower appellate Court.

(3.) The matter was referred to a Division Bench by me in view of the fact that two decisions of this Court reported in AIR 1949 Pat 278 (FB) and AIR 1918 Pat 71 needed a deeper examination, in the light of the submission of the learned counsel for the appellant that S.11A of the Suits Valuation Act does not apply as the valuation of the property in the suit was not increased. Learned counsel for the appellant placed reliance on AIR 1918 Pat 71 to submit that if the value of the property in the suit and the appeal is beyond the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Court concerned, the decree so passed, shall be void and no amount of consent or acquiescence will save the decree from the vice of nullity. The passage relied upon is as follows :-