RAMASWAMI NAIDU Vs. CHINNASWAMI NAIDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under Clause 15. of the Letters Patent from a judgment of Happell, J. The learned Judge has dealt with the facts and the law in detail and we are in full agreement with his decision.

(2.) The appellant instituted a suit on a promissory note in the Panchayat Court of Kadayampatti. The suit was dismissed because the parties did not appear. After the dismissal of the suit the defendant filed a petition in the Court of the District Munsiff of Sankari asking that a complaint should be made by the District Munsiff to a Criminal Court on the. ground that the endorsements on the promissory note were forgeries. The District Munsiff held that he had no jurisdiction to grant the petition and consequently dismissed it. The defendant then appealed to the District Court and in addition filed a petition asking the District Court itself to make the complaint. The District Judge dismissed both the appeal and the petition. He was right in dismissing the appeal but erred in dismissing the petition. The District Judge had omitted to notice the amendment in Section 77 of the Madras Village Courts Act. The defendant appealed to this Court against the order of the District Judge on the petition. Happell, J., allowed the appeal and directed that the case should be remanded to the District Court for disposal on the merits. The appeal is from that order.

(3.) There is no appeal against a decision of a Village Court. Section 73 of the Act empowers the District Munsiff to set aside a decree or order passed by a Village Court if he is satisfied that there has been corruption, gross partiality or misconduct on the part of the Court or that it has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law, or that it has otherwise acted illegally or with material irregularity, or that the decree or order is clearly unjust. This section expressly states that except as provided in it every decree or order of a Village Court shall be final. This section has been inserted in the Act in order that a person aggrieved by the improper action of a Village Court may have a remedy but it is not a remedy by appeal. It is a remedy by a petition to the District Munsiff who is empowered to deal with such a situation.