KISHORE LAL Vs. BALKISHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application for the transfer of a suit pending in the Court of the Munsif of Kasganj. A question arose whether the suit could be transferred to the Court of another Munsif in the same district and my learned brother entertaining a doubt as to the correctness of the ruling in Ram Das V/s. Habib Ullah [1931] 136 I.C. 384 has referred the point of law to a Division Bench.

(2.) The question for consideration is whether the High Court or the District Judge, acting under Section 24, Civil P.C. has power to transfer a suit pending in one subordinate Court to another subordinate Court, which has pecuniary, but not territorial jurisdiction to try that suit. In one sense it might be said that the present question did not strictly arise in the case mentioned above, because the Bench came to the conclusion that the order of the District Judge directing a transfer of the case when he did not proceed suo motu, hut on an application made by a party was illegal and irregular inasmuch as no notice had been issued to the defendant The order could have been set aside on that ground alone. It however appears that the learned advocate for the applicant pressed the other question as well presumably because he did not want that the case should be transferred to the particular Munsif to whose Court it had been transferred. Bajpai, J., in whose judgment I concurred accordingly expressed; that view following a Patna case, namely Jannat Hussain V/s. Ghulam Kutubuddin Ahmad A.I.R. 1920 Pat. 29 and gave directions to the District Judge to bear that view in mind. It is therefore not possible to say that the last observation was altogether an., obiter dtctum.

(3.) Under Section 25, Act 14 of 1882, the High Court and the District Court were given power to transfer a suit pending in a subordinate Court to any other subordinate Court competent to try the same in respect of its nature and the amount, or value of its subject-matter.