IMPORTANT POINT
Civil courts established under Andhra Pradesh Civil Courts Act, 1972 have no jurisdiction in scheduled areas.

ORDER

Civil Appeal Nos. 5030-5036 of 2004; Civil Appeal Nos. 5037-5038 of 2004; Civil Appeal No. 5028 of 2004; Civil Appeal No. 5029 of 2004 and Civil Appeal No. 371 of 2007;

1. Before the High Court in a group of Civil Revision Petitions filed Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 the issue under consideration was the applicability of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Courts Act, 1972 [Act No. 19 of 1972] (for short,' 1972 Act') to the Scheduled Areas of the State of Andhra Pradesh. One of the contentions raised before the High Court was that the courts established under the 1972 Act cannot be conferred any territorial jurisdiction over the Scheduled Areas and the decrees passed by the Civil Courts were nullity in relation to cases where whole cause of action arose in the Scheduled Areas.

2. The High Court, by the impugned judgments dated June 27,2000, August 2,2000 and August 25, 2000, has declared the jurisdiction of the Civil Courts functioning in the Scheduled Areas from 1972 onwards as illegal and void. It was declared consequently that all the judgments, decrees and orders passed by the Civil Courts in the Scheduled Areas from 1972 onwards were null and void.

3. The above judgments of the High Court are impugned in these Civil Appeals.

4. On January 23, 2008 this Court passed the following order:

in the midst of hearing of these appeals, a peculiar problem has been brought to our notice by learned Counsel appearing for the parties that under Andhra Pradesh Civil Courts Act, 1972 (hereinafter for short 'Act No. 19 of 1972') a notification has been issued by the Governor in exercise of powers under Sub-section (3) of Section 1 of the Act No. 19 of 1972 by which the jurisdiction of the Civil Courts has come into force in the whole State of Andhra Pradesh except in the Scheduled Areas of the State.

It is contended by Mr. P.S. Narsimha, learned Counsel appearing for the Appellant(s) that even before coming into force of the Act, the Civil Courts had been established in the Scheduled Areas and they have been functioning since 1950. The Appellant(s), decree-holders, obtained a decree from the Civil Court in the Scheduled Areas, however, since the operation of Act No. 19 of 1972 is excluded from the Scheduled Areas of the State, they are unable to execute the decree. The High Court, in its impugned judgment, held that as the Act itself is not applicable in the Scheduled Areas, the decree passed by the Civil Court is null and void and inexecutable. It has been brought to our notice that now many non-Scheduled people are residing in the Scheduled Areas of the State including owners of commercial and business houses. That apart, many banks have been established including the Appellant banks, who are non-Scheduled people and they are being deprived of resolution of the disputes through the Civil Courts. Even in those cases which have been decided by the Civil Courts, the decrees could not be executed because the Civil Courts Act is not applicable and the decree passed by the Civil Courts in Scheduled Areas has been declared null and void. These are the contentions over which we have given our serious consideration.

A dispute may arise between the people of Scheduled Areas and non-Scheduled Areas in which case, in our view, the people of non-Scheduled Areas cannot be subjected to the methodology and the procedure adopted while resolving the dispute between the people of Scheduled Areas.

In our view, therefore, a mechanism has to be evolved in a case where the dispute involved is between the people of Scheduled Areas and non-Scheduled areas. One way of resolving this problem is by either issuing a notification or by an amendment in the Act to the extent that the Civil Courts Act shall be extended to the Scheduled Areas of the State except where the dispute involved is between people of Scheduled and non-Scheduled Areas. While saying this we also took note of the observation made by the High Court. The High Court, while allowing the petition