SIRDAR GURDYAL SINGH Vs. RAJAH OF FARIDKOTE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Respondent, the Rajah of Faridkote, obtained in the Civil Court of that native State, in 1879 and 1880, two ex parte judgments, in two suits instituted by him against the Appellant, for sums amounting together to Rs. 76,474 11a. 3p., and costs. For all the purposes of the question to be now decided, those two suits may be treated as one; the appeals to Her Majesty in Council having been consolidated. Two actions, founded on these judgments, were brought by the Rajah against the Appellant in the Court of the Assistant Commissioner of Lahore and were dismissed by that Court, on the ground that the judgments were pronounced by the Faridkote Court, without jurisdiction as against the Appellant. On appeal to the Additional Commissioner of Lahore, the judgments of the first Court were upheld. The Rajah then appealed to the Chief Court of the Punjaub, which differed from both those tribunals, and upheld the jurisdiction of the Faridkote Court.

(2.) FARIDKOTE is a native State, the Rajah of which has been recognised by Her Majesty as having an independent civil, criminal, and fiscal jurisdiction.The judgments of its Courts are, and ought to be, regarded in Her Majesty's Courts of British India as foreign judgments. The Additional Commissioner of Lahore thought that no action could be brought in Her Majesty's Courts upon a judgment of a native State; but in this opinion their Lordships do not concur.

(3.) THE Appellant left the late Rajah's service, and ceased to reside within his territorial jurisdiction, in 1874. He was from that time generally resident in another independent native State, that of Jhind, of which he was a native subject and in which he was domiciled; and he never returned to Faridkote after he left it in 1874. He was in Jhind when he was served with certain processes of the Faridkote Court, as to which it is unnecessary for their Lordships to determine what the effect would have been if there had been jurisdiction. He disregarded them, and never appeared in either of the suits instituted by the Rajah, or otherwise submitted himself to that jurisdiction. He was under, no obligation to do so, by reason of the notice of the suits which he thus received or otherwise, unless that Court had lawful jurisdiction over him.