UMESHCHANDRA BANERJI Vs. KUNJALAL BISWAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Section 129 of the Civil Procedure Code provides that "Notwithstanding anything in this Code any High Court established under the Indian High Courts Act, 1961, or the Government of India Act, 1915, may make such rules not inconsistent with the fetters Patent establishing it to regulate its own procedure in the exercise of its original civil jurisdiction as it shall think fit, and nothing herein contained shall affect the validity of any such rules in force at the commencement of this Code."

(2.) The object of this section was to provide for elasticity in procedure and to enable defects in the (Jade to be remedied without the dilatory process of legislation, and the High Court was given power to vary or remand the rules of procedure which appear in the Code: see notes on page 487, "Woodroffe on Civil Procedure , Second Edition."

(3.) For this reason the sections dealing with procedure were taken out of the body of the Code and placed in a separate schedule. Therefore, if the matter were res Integra, I am doubtful whether I should decide that Order XXI, Rule 89, applies to the High Court, because it is incompatible and inconsistent with the rules of the High Court on the Original Side. But it was decided in 1920 by Mookerjee, A.C.J. and Fletcher, J. in Virjiban Dass Moolji V/s. Biseswar Lal Hargovind 6 Ind. Cas. 406 : 48 C. 69 : 24 C.W.N. 1032 that the rule does apply, and further they went on to say that the practice on the Original Side was contrary to law. I must confess that it is difficult to see he w the rules of the High Court can be held to be contrary to law in view Of Section 129. It should be observed that there is nothing in the Code to say that those rules must not be inconsistent with the Code. What they must not be is inconsistent with the Letters Patent establishing the Court he wever, this case has been followed consistently and it is no I; for me to disagree with it,--the question must await final solution hereafter. The difficulty in applying Order XXI, Rule 89, to sales on, the Original Side was recognised by Rankin, C.J. in Kalyanee Debi V/s. Hari Mohan Ghosh 120 Ind. Cas. 718 : 56 C. 477 : A.I.R. 1929 Cal. 574 : Ind. Rul. (1930) Cal. 78. In that case the learned Chief Justice said that, as the rule is a concession to the judgment-debtor, it ought to be applied strictly and where, owing to the difference between our Original Side practice and the mofussil practice, which is contemplated in the rule, it is impossible to apply the rule strictly, the Court must apply it as fairly as possible to the circumstances of a sale on the Original Side. It was said by Sir Francis Maclean, C.J. in Chundi Char an Mandal V/s. Banke Behary Lal Mandal 26 C. 449 : 3 C.W.N. 283 (F.B.) that the rule affords a special indulgence to the judgment-debtor and that the 5 per cent, was given partly as a solatium to the purchaser for the loss of his bargain. In many cases, if the 5 per cent, is all that the purchaser is entitled to, it would mean that he would not get anything for the loss of his bargain and might be actually out of pocket on account of loss of interest on his money and for costs incurred.