1. Certain land belonging to the petitioners was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter called the Act). Collectors award was made for a certain amount. The petitioners asked the Collector to make a reference under Sec.18 of the Act as, according to them, the amount awarded by the Collector was too inadequate. Accordingly reference was made by the Collector in Land Acquisition Case No. 289 of 1964. On the 9th of September, 1967 a time petition was filed on behalf of the petitioners on certain grounds. The time petition was rejected and thereafter the court dismissed the land acquisition case for default The petitioners filed an application, presumably, under Order 9, Rule 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure (hereinafter called the Code) for restoration of the land acquisition case trying to make out a sufficient cause. The court below, on a consideration of the evidence adduced before it, did not find in favour of the petitioners that sufficient cause prevented them from appearing when the land acquisition case was called out on 9-9-67. In that view of the matter, their application was dismissed. The petitioners filed miscellaneous first appeal under Order 43, Rule 1 (c) of the Code.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioners first pressed his miscellaneous appeal and endeavoured to persuade us, on the evidence adduced by the petitioners, to find sufficient cause for them lor their non-appearance on 9-9-67. We did not feel persuaded to hold that there was sufficient cause for their non-appearance. Learned counsel for the petitioners then pointed out that the order of the court below passed on 9-9-67 dismissing the land acquisition case in default of appearance of the petitioners was without jurisdiction as the court below had no power to dismiss a reference case under Sec.18 of the Act for default of the claimant. In support of the said proposition of law, learned counsel relied upon a Bench decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Abdul Karim V/s. State of Madhya Pradesh, (AIR 1964 Madh Pra 171) and some observations in a Bench decision of this Court in Bhadar Munda V/s. Dhuchua Oraon. (AIR 1970 Pat 209). Learned counsel submitted that the application filed by the petitioners ought to have been treated as an application invoking the inherent jurisdiction of the court under Sec.151 of the Code to recall the order dated 9-9-67 which was passed without jurisdiction. We were impressed by this argument. The claimant has to file a petition before the Collector under Sec.18 of the Act asking him to make a reference to the court. On such reference being made, the claimant does not become a plaintiff or a petitioner in the land acquisition case; rather under Sec.20 of the Act the court has to serve a notice even on the claimant who had filed the application before the Collector asking for a reference under Sec.18 of the Act. The court has to make an award under Sec.26. Although Section 53 provides-

"Save in so far as they may be inconsistent with anything contained in this Act, the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure (XIV of 1882), shall apply to all proceedings before the Court under this Act"

a land acquisition reference case cannot be dismissed for default on non-appearance of the claimant. Order 9, Rule 8 read with Sec.141 of the Code or Sec. 53 of the Act will not apply to such a case. The court has to make an award even in absence of any evidence. The court may be obliged to accept and determine the amount of compensation mentioned in the Collectors award as correct. But that is not to say that a court can dismiss the reference case for default. An order passed by the court below, therefore, refusing to exercise the Inherent jurisdiction of the court is not appealable. And, that is the reason that, at the request of the learned counsel for the petitioners, we treated this miscellaneous first appeal as a civil revision and proceeded to hear it as such.

3 In our opinion, the order dated 9-9-67 passed