A suit for recovery of money, where the value of the subject matter is less than Rs. 500/-, is exclusively cognizable by the Small Causes Court, and no appeal lies to the District Court against the decree passed in such a suit.

JUDGMENT :- This is an application filed by the plaintiff against the order of the learned District Judge in an appeal filed by the defendant against the decree passed by the trial Court in favour of the plaintiff. The plaintiff who filed the suit to recover a sum of Rs. 144/- from the defendant alleged that under a compromise decree passed in a prior suit between the parties the defendant had made herself liable to pay over to the plaintiff all the income that was derived from the property in suit. The defendant, whose title to that property was declared in that compromise decree, resisted the plaintiffs suit on several grounds. The trial Court decided all the issues that were raised in the case in favour of the plaintiff and passed a decree for the amount that was claimed in the suit. It may be noted, however, that this suit was filed originally in the Small Causes Court at Sholapur, but later on by a Purshis signed by the pleaders of both the parties the suit was registered and tried as a regular suit. Against the decree passed by the trial Court an appeal was preferred by the defendant to the District Court at Sholapur. The learned Assistant Judge at Sholapur allowed the appeal and dismissed the plaintiffs suit with costs. It is against that order of the learned Assistant Judge that the present revision application has been filed by the plaintiff.

2. It was Contended by Mr. Rege, the learned advocate for the plaintiff-applicant that the suit was exclusively cognizable by the Small Causes Court at Sholapur, that although by consent of parties it was registered and tried as a regular suit by the Court in exercise of its ordinary jurisdiction, the nature of the suit remained the same, that is, the suit remained as a Small Cause suit and that no appeal lay under the provisions of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act from a decree passed in a Small Cause suit and that, therefore, the decision of the learned Assistant Judge at Sholapur in appeal against the decision of the trial Court was illegal and void. On the other hand it was contended by the learned Advocate for the defendant, that the suit was not really one which was exclusively cognizable by the Small Causes Court in spite of the fact that the only relief that was asked for was recovery of the sum of Rs. 144/- but that it was a suit for specific performance of the agreement which was embodied in the compromise decree in the prior suit and that, therefore, under clause 15 of the Second Schedule to the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, the Small Causes Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and that the suit could only be tried as a regular suit. In support of this contention, the learned advocate for the defendant invited my attention to Sec. 15 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act which says that a Court of Small Causes shall not take cognizance of the suits specified in the Second Schedule as suits excepted from the cognizance of a Court of Small Causes. Sub-section (2) of that section, however, provides that subject to the exceptions specified in that schedule and to the provisions of any enactment for the time being in force, all suits of a civil nature of which the value does not exceed five hundred rupees shall be cognizable by a Court of Small Causes. Section 16 of that Act then provides that save as expressly provided by this Act or by any other enactment for the time being in force, a suit cognizable by a Court of Small Causes shall not be tried by any other Court having jurisdiction within the local limits of the jurisdiction of the Court of Small Causes by which the suit is triable. These two sections make it quite plain that subject to the exceptions specified in the Second Schedule to the Act, all suits of a civil nature of which the value does not exceed five hundred rupees shall be cognizable by the Court of Small Causes and that such suits shall not be tried by any other Court which may have jurisdiction within the local limits of t