A revision does not lie to the High Court under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure against the orders passed by the District Munsifs or District Judges under the Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Tenancy Act, as they are not civil Courts but only tribunals and not subordinate to the High Court.

G. RADHAKRISHNA RAO, J.

( 1 ) THIS revision is directed against the Judgment of the learned District Judge, at Rajahmundry in A. T. A. No. 15 of 1992 allowing the same and granting interim injunction against the revision petitioner in I. A. No. 365 of 1991 in A. T. C. No. 31/1991.

( 2 ) THE first respondent had taken a preliminary objection before the learned single Judge of this Court contending that since the proceedings arose out of andhra Tenancy Act, revision is not maintainable under Section 115 C. P. C. The learned Single Judge N. D. Patnaik, J. , in his order dated 5-3-1993 observed as follows:-" Since this question involves a matter of considerable importance under the Andhra Tenancy Act, I feel that it is desirable that an authoritative pronouncement by a Division Bench on this aspectis required. I, therefore, refer the following questions for decision by a Division Bench: 1. Whether a revision lies to the High Court under Section 115 C. P. C. against an order passed by the District Judge u/s 16 (2) of A. P. (Andhra area) Tenancy Act?2. If no revision lies under Section 115 C. P. C what is the remedy of the aggrieved party - is it by way of filing a revision petition under Art. 227 of the Constitution of India or a Writ Petition under Art. 226 of the constitution of India? "hence, the present revision has come up before us for adjudication.

( 3 ) IT is contended by the learned Counsel for the first respondent Sri M. V. Durga Prasad that the term district Judge is not synonymous to the term district Court and when appeal lies under the Tenancy Act to the District judge, he is only appointed as persona designata under the Act as appellate authority under the Act, but the appeal does not lie to the Court of District judge, which is subordinate to the High Court, and the revision, therefore, does not lie under Section 115 C. P. C. To substantiate his contention, he referred to the various relevant provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Tenancy Act and Andhra Pradesh Civil Courts Act, 1972, which will be dealt with at appropriate point of time. The learned Counsel further contended that as per the scheme of the A. P. (Andhra Area) Tenancy Act, though judicial officers are appointed to adjudicate the disputes under the Act, but they were appointed as persona designata and as such they are not vested with the jurisdiction that is conferred on a Civil Court He drew our attention to Sec. 16 (1) of the said A. P. (Andhra area) Tenancy Act, which provides that -"any dispute arising under this Act between a landlord and a cultivating tenant, including any question relating to the determination of fair rent or the eviction of a cultivating tenant shall, on application by the landlord or the cultivating tenant, as the case may be, be decided by the Special Officer after making an inquiry in the manner prescribed. "special Officer is defined in Section 2 (j) as any Judicial Officer not below the rank of a District Munsif appointed by the Government in consultation with the high Court to perform the functions of a Special Officer under the Act.

( 4 ) AS per Section 16 (2) -"against any order passed by the Special Officer under sub-section (1), an appeal shall lie to the District Judge,. . . . . . and the decision of the District judge on such appeal shall be final. "it is contended by Sri M. V. Durga Prasad that even though a Judicial Officer of the rank of a District Munsif is appointed to act as Special Officer under the provisions of the Tenancy Act to adjudicate the disputes under the Act, he does not function as a Civil Court but functions only as a Tribunal, as the provisions of C. P. C. and A. P. Civil Courts Act make distinction between Court and Judge. He further contended that similarly, the appellate authority i. e. , the District Judge, who is appointed to act only as persona designata, does not function as a Civil court but function only as a Tribunal, and therefore, no revision lies

Click Here to Read the rest of this document