The present appeal is filed against the order of the Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Hubli, returning the petition of the appellant, seeking a decree of divorce filed under Section 12 of the Divorce Act, 1869, to present it before the proper Court.

2. The respondent has been served, she remains unrepresented. The only question to be considered in this appeal is:

"Whether the Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Hubli, did not have jurisdiction to entertain the petition seeking divorce under the Divorce Act, 1869?'

The reasoning of the Court in returning the petition is two-fold. Firstly, that the petition was filed under Section 12 of the Divorce Act, 1869, whereas it should have been filed under Section 10 of the Divorce Act and secondly, that the Act prescribes that a petition for divorce under Section 10 shall be presented before the District Court or the High Court and therefore, that Court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the petition.

3. Firstly, the reasoning that the petition ought to have been filed under Section 10 and not under Section 12 of the Divorce Act, 1869, need not detain me for long. Even if the petition had been preferred under a w