NRISINGHA CHARAN NANDY CHOUDHRY Vs. RAJNITI PRASAD SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The suit, out of which this appeal arises, was instituted in the Court of the Settlement Officer of the Sonthal Parganas, to enforce two mortgages comprising landed property, the major portion of which was situated in Sonthal Parganas, and the remainder in the Gaya district. The plaintiffs, who were the mortgagees, submitted with their plaint an application to the Settlement Officer asking him to transfer the suit for trial to the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Gaya; and this application was granted by him. When the case came on for hearing before the Subordinate Judge, the defendants challenged his jurisdiction to entertain the suit; but their objection was overruled, not only by the trial Judge, but also by the High Court at Patna to whom the case was taken on revision. Prom the judgment delivered by the High Court, this appeal has, by special leave, been brought by one of the defendants; and the question of jurisdiction has again been debated by the learned counsel for the parties.

(2.) The Sonthal Parganas, which originally formed part of the Presidency of Bengal and are now included in the province of Bihar and Orissa, were considered to be a backward tract; and it was, therefore, deemed expedient that that territory should be governed, not by the general laws and regulations in force in the Presidency, but by such laws as may be specially enacted for, or extended to it. To carry out this object a statute entitled the Sonthal Parganas Act, 37 of 1855, was passed by the Governor-General of India in Council, providing, inter alia, for the administration of civil and criminal justice by the officer or officers, under whose superintendence and jurisdiction the district of Sonthal Parganas was placed. The law as enacted by that statute was subsequently amended and supplemented by various Acts and Regulations, but their Lordships consider it unnecessary to enter upon an examination of the history of the legislation governing the constitution of the Courts established for the administration of Civil Justice in the district, or of the laws to be followed by them. Their Lordships will deal only with the law which has a direct bearing upon the question of jurisdiction raised by the appeal.

(3.) It may be mentioned at the outset that at the time of the institution of the suit a settlement was being made of the district of Sonthal Parganas; and, as the plaintiffs sought to enforce their claim by a sale of the mortgaged property including the land situated in that district, they filed their plaint before the officer making the settlement. This was done in compliance with S.5, Sonthal Parganas Settlement Regulation 3 of 1872, which, as re-enacted in a modified form by the Sonthal Parganas Settlement (Amendment) Regulation 3 of 1908, reads as follows: 5.-(1) From the date on which, under S. 9, the Lieutenant Governor declares, by a, notification in the Calcutta Gazette, that a settlement shall be made of the whole or any part of the Sonthal Parganas, until the date on which such settlement is declared by a like notification, to have been completed, no suit shall lie in any civil Court, established under the Bengal, Agra and Assam Civil Courts Act, 1887, in regard to-(a) any land or any interest in, or arising out of land, or (b) the rent or profits of any land, or (c) any village headship or other office connected with any land, in the area covered by such first-mentioned notification; nor shall any civil Court proceed with the hearing of any such suit which may be pending before it. (2) Between the dates referred to in sub-section (1), all suits of the nature therein described shall be filed before or transferred to an officer appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor under S. 2, Sonthal Parganas Act, 1855, or S.10 of this Regulation, according as the Lieutenant-Governor may from time to time direct, and such officer shall hear and, even though during the hearing the settlement may be declared to have been completed, determine them.