MATHURBHAI GARBADBHAI PATEL Vs. NADIAN CITY MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) When this Second Appeal No. 974 of 1928 came before me for admission, I held that the suit was barred under Section 206 of the Bombay City Municipal Act 1925, as had been held in both the Courts below. I thought that the present suit was in respect of something done or purporting to have been done under the existing Act, and that it could not be said that the suit was founded on something that took place prior to the 1925 Act. I also thought that certain arguments raised on the wording of the section did not avail the applicant, particularly having regard to the decision of the Privy Council in Bhagchand V/s. Secretary of State reversing what had hitherto been the Bombay view that suits for an injunction were not within Section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code.

(2.) Following on my decision Mr. Shah applied for leave to appeal and I asked him to put his grounds in writing. A formal application was accordingly put in, but before it came on for hearing the Letters Patent of December 12, 1928, were published in the Bombay Government, Gazette on January 24, 1929, at p. 131. It is now claimed that having regard to those Letteis Patant no leave is necessary. I am not satisfied by any means that that contention is correct, As I read these new Letters Patent of 1928 I think it clear that under ol,|15, as now amended, leave will be necessary as regards all decisions in second appeals by a single High Court Judge on and after February 1, 1929.

(3.) But by Clause 2 these new Letters Patent are only to come into operation on February 1, 1929. I say this because in my opinion it is clear that the words "these Letters Patent" in clause two are the same as the words "These Our Letters to be made Patent" in the testatum, which can only refer to the new Letters. I also think that the expression "these. Letters Patent" is used in direct contrast to the expressions adopted for reference to the older Letters Patent as for instance in pi. 1, where reference hi made to "the said Letters Patent bearing date December 28; 1865," and also to "the fifteenth clause! of the said Letters Patent"