VASUDEV SADASHIV MODAK Vs. COLLECTOR OF RATNAGIRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against a judgment of the High Court of Bombay confirming a judgment of the Judge of first instance, which, before the settlement of issues in the cause, dismissed the suit of the Appellant on the ground that it was excluded from the jurisdiction of the Civil Courts by the Pensions Act, 1871. The material sections of the statute are the 4th and the 3rd.

(2.) THE 4th says, "Except as hereinafter provided"--and it is admitted that the case does not fall within any of the statutory exceptions--" no Civil Court shall entertain any suit relating to any pension or grant of money or land revenue conferred or made by the British or any former Government, whatever may have been the consideration for any such pension or grant, and whatever may have been the nature of the payment, claim, or grant for which such pension or grant may have been substituted;" and the

(3.) THE materials which were before the Court were the plaint, the oral examination by the Judge of the Plaintiffs pleader, the sunnud of the 3rd of March, 1777, and the judgment in a former suit instituted by the Appellant against the Government before the passing of the Act, which is set out in the record. The question is whether, taking all these together, the Judge had not sufficient grounds for saying that the suit was within the meaning and operation of the Pensions Act, 1871.