(JANAPAREDDI) VENKATA REDDI Vs. (JANAPAREDDI) ADHINARAYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the decision of the Subordinate Judge of Vizagapatam on a reference to him under Section 30, Land Acquisition Act.

(2.) The facts are as follows: The Special Deputy Collector, Harbour Acquisition, Vizagapatam, made his award on 18 January 1925. As to the apportionment of one of the amounts he awarded, there was a dispute between two claimants. Without deciding their claims he referred the matter to the civil Court under Section 30. The amount in dispute which was referred to the Subordinate Judge's Court was Rs. 1,349. A preliminary objection is raised by the vakil for the respondent that this appeal does not lie to the High Court but to the District Court of Vizagapitam. We think this objection is well founded, After a reference under Section 30 is made to the civil Courts, the decision of the Court cannot be regarded as an award under Part 3 of the Act. In the case reported in Ramachandra Rao V/s. Ramachandra Rao A.I.R. 1922 P.C. 80, their Lordships of the Privy Council observe that there are two perfectly separate and distinct; forms of procedure contemplated under the Act and where there is a dispute as to the relative rights of the persons together entitled to the money the duty of the Collector is: to place the money under the control of the Court, and the parties then can proceed to litigate in the ordinary way to determine what their right and title to the property may be. How the proceedings were commenced is a matter that is not material, provided that they were instituted in the manner that gave the Court jurisdiction, for they ended in a decree made by the High Court and appealable to this Board.

(3.) These observations show that a decision on a reference under Section 30 was regarded as a decree and not as an award as then understood, and it attracted all the usual consequences of an appeal to the High Court and a further appeal to the Privy Council like all decrees of Subordinate Courts. The view taken there was that it was a decree governed by Civil P.C., and the Civil Courts Act. If so, the subject matter of the lis being only Rs. 1,349, the appeal from the Subordinate Judge does not lie to the High Court but only to the District Court, because the value is less than Rs. 5,000.