PITCHAIKALA MANGAMMA Vs. NALLAMATI PEDA AMMANNA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the suit out of which this Civil Revision Petition arises an award was filed, and the 1st defendant applied to have the award set aside. The learned Subordinate Judge has found that this application was made more than 10 days after the award was filed, and that it was, therefore, out of date. In coming to this conclusion, he has failed to apply the provision in Section 12(4) of the Limitation Act that in computing; limitation for this purpose the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the award shall be excluded. It is admitted that; if this be done, the 1 defend" ant's application would be within time.

(2.) I think it is clear that the learned Subordinate Judge's decision., consisted in a failure to realise that the time taken to procure a copy was a relevant factor, and not, as the petitioner here has endeavoured to agree, that he merely overlooked the circumstance that four days were so occupied. His error, in other words, was an error in applying the Law of Limitation, and not an erroneous omission to consider facts which, upon the view which he should have taken of the law, ought to have been considered. The question for me first to decide is, therefore, whether the dismissal of a claim on the grounds that it is time-barred amounts to a failure to exercise a jurisdiction with which the Court is vested, so that Section 115. Civil Procedure Code, will enable the order to be revised.

(3.) [B] The meaning of, the word "jurisdiction" in this section has been considered by Woodroffe, J., in Shew Prosad Bungshidhur V/s. Ram Chunder Hairbux 23 Ind, Cas. 977 : 41C. 323. The term, according to one) view, he says "is here used in the ordinary sense, that is a jurisdiction local, pecuniary, personal or with reference to the subject-matter of the suit," The other view is that, "the term may mean the legal authority of a Court to do certain things, namely, to make a particular order in a case over which it has jurisdiction in the sense stated. The learned Judge, expresses a preference for the former Construction, and it appears to me that it is this construction which forms the basis of a large preponderance of the decisions upon this point. [B] To accept the alternative construction, and to hold, for instance, that a Court which dismisses a claim as time-barred fails to exercise a jurisdiction vested in it by law, would entail the position that wherever a Court allows or rejects a claim upon an erroneous view of law it acts in excess of, or in defect of, its jurisdiction and its decision would be open to revision. The distinction is brought out when we consider the appropriate procedure. A Court which denies that it has jurisdiction to try a suit returns the plaint. If it admits jurisdiction, it proceeds to record a decision. Whatever the issues between the parties, if the Court has jurisdiction to decide them no question of jurisdiction arises out of the manner of the decision. And in the former case, unlike the latter, no issue can become res judicata.