Interpretation of the term 'case decided' under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure

Hari Nath Tilhari, J.—By this revision petition under Section 115 of Code of Civil Procedure, the Defendant/revision Petitioner has sought to challenge the order dated 10.4.2000 passed by the Principal Civil Judge (Junior Division) and J.M.F.C., Chickballapur, in O.S. No. 283 of 1990.

2. In the course of trial, it appears that the learned Counsel for the Defendant raised the objection as to the admissibility of the unregistered document namely palupatti i.e., some document alleged to be palupatti. The objection of the Defendant was that the palupatti was not registered and so it cannot be marked in evidence of the Plaintiff as it is inadmissible to prove title of any coparcener to any of the property. The Court below rejected the objection taking the view that even if the document may be taken to be an unregistered partition deed and it is not registered, but even an unregistered document may be used for collateral purposes. Whether that document itself is the partition-deed or not, that question has to be decided at the time of hearing of the suit and unless that question is decided, the question whether the document requires to be registered or not could not be decided. But, even if a document is unregistered and it is intended to be used for collateral purposes, the trial Court opined that even an inadmissible document can be used for collateral purposes and rejected the objection. From this order, the Defendant has come up in revision under Section 115.

3. To invoke the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 115, the first thing the applicant has to establish is, whether the order impugned amounts to a case decided? It called upon the learned Counsel to satisfy the Court whether the order impugned amounts to a case decided? The learned Counsel for the revision Petitioner made reference to the decision of Their Lordships of the Supreme Court in the case of Major S.S. Khanna Vs. Brig. F.J. Dillon, AIR 1964 SC 497. In this case, Their Lordships of the Supreme Court have been pleased to observe that,

The expression 'case' is a word of comprehensive import: it includes civil proceedings other than suits, and is not restricted by anything contained in the section to the entirety of the proceeding in a civil Court.

Their Lordships, no doubt, opined that,

To interpret the expression 'case' as an entire proceeding only and not a part of a proceeding would be to impose a restriction upon the exercise of powers of superintendence to which the jurisdiction to issue writs, and the supervisory jurisdiction are not subject.

Thus, Their Lordships opined that the expression used in Section 115 is not synonymous to the suit. Even an order relating to a part of proceedings may amount to a case decided. The purport of this case has been considered and explained by other subsequent decisions of Their Lordships of the Supreme Court in the case of Baldevdas Shivlal and Another Vs. Filmistan Distributors (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Others, AIR 1970 SC 406 where Their Lordships of the Supreme Court considered the impact and then observed as under:

But it was not decided in Major S.S. Khanna Vs. Brig. F.J. Dillon, AIR 1964 SC 497 that every order of the Court in the course of a suit amounts to a case decided. A case may be said to be decided, if the Court adjudicates for the purposes of the suit some right or obligation of the parties in controversy; every order in the suit cannot be regarded as a case decided within the meaning of Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

In the case of Baldevdas, the question about the interpretation of case decided did arise in the circumstances as mentioned below as appears from a perusal of para No. 4,

When the case reached hearing and the evidence of a representative of Filmistan as being recorded Counsel for the Defendants asked in cross-examination the question whether the agreement between the Plaintiff and Defendants Nos. 5 and 6 was a commercial transaction and was not a lease?' The question was objected to