1960 Supreme(Cal) 216

HIGH COURT OF CALCUTTA
R. S. Bachawat, D. N. Sinha, P. N. Mookerjee
R. RAY - Appellant
Versus
V. G. DALVI - Respondent
.   Of  .
Decided On : September 15, 1960

Section 20 (c) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 applies to the City Civil Court and Clause 12 of the Letters Patent of the Calcutta High Court does not apply.

Headnote:

CITY CIVIL COURT ACT, 1953 - SECTIONS 5, 6 AND 7 - INTERPRETATION - JURISDICTION, PROCEDURE AND LAW TO BE ADMINISTERED - SECTION 20 (C) OF THE CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, 1908 - APPLICABILITY TO THE CITY CIVIL COURT - CLAUSE 12 OF THE LETTERS PATENT OF THE CALCUTTA HIGH COURT - APPLICABILITY - HELD, SECTION 20 (C) OF THE CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE APPLIES TO THE CITY CIVIL COURT AND CLAUSE 12 OF THE LETTERS PATENT DOES NOT APPLY.

Fact of the Case:

The plaintiff instituted a representative suit in the City Civil Court for a declaration that a certain order of suspension of the West Bengal Circle Branch passed by the defendant No. 1 on the 24th June, 1958, is illegal, void and liable to set aside and consequential injunction restraining the defendants from giving effect to the order. The plaintiff contended that part of the cause of action for the suit arose on the service of the suspension order on the plaintiff in the city of Calcutta. The defendants disputed this contention. They also urged that assuming that a part of the alleged City Civil Court had no jurisdiction to try the suit inasmuch as prior leave of the Court to institute the suit had not been obtained. One of the issues raised was "has the Court jurisdiction to try the suit." The learned Judge of the City Civil Court answered the issue in the affirmative. On the merits he dismissed the suit. The plaintiff preferred an appeal to the Court. In the appeal the defendant respondents repeated their contentions that the City Civil Court had no jurisdiction to try the suit. On the assumption that a part of the cause of action arose in the city of Calcutta one of the questions debated before the Division Bench was whether Section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 applied to the City Civil Court or whether that Court was governed by Clause 12 of the Letters Patent of the Calcutta High Court.

Finding of the Court:

The City Civil Court is an inferior Court of limited jurisdiction. Section 5 prescribes the limits of its territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction and also defines the subject matters over which it can have no jurisdiction. The section does not specially lay down the conditions upon which the Court can assume jurisdiction to entertain any try a suit. As in the case of other Civil Courts, those conditions are left to be regulated by Section 16 to 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The Code is made applicable to the City Civil Court by Section 6 of the Act. Section 20 of the Code, therefore, applies to the City Civil Court. By Section 20 of the Code, subject to the limitation contained in the preceding sections, a suit may be instituted in the City Civil Court if the cause of action arises wholly or in part within the city of Calcutta. The section does not require that the prior leave of the Court must be obtained in a case where the cause of action arises in part only within the local limits of its jurisdiction.

Issues: 1. Whether Section 20, and Section 20 (c) in particular, of the Code of Civil Procedure, apply to the City Civil Court, or whether, in such matters, the City Civil Court is governed by Clause 12 of the Letters Patent. 2. If the City Civil Court is at all governed by Clause 12 of the Letters Patent, whether a suit, in which part only of the cause of action arose within the territorial jurisdiction of that Court, instituted without leave of the City Civil Court, becomes incompetently instituted and, therefore, not maintainable.

Ratio Decidendi: The expression "law for the time being administered by the High Court" in Section 7 of the City Civil Court Act, 1953 is used in the same sense and means the substantive laws administered in that jurisdiction. Clause 12 of the Letters Patent is not such a law and is not therefore made applicable to the City Civil Courts by Section 7 of the City Civil Court Act, 1953.

Final Decision: Question (a) : Section 20 including Section 20 (c) of the Code of Civil Procedure applies to the City Civil Court. Subject to the limitations mentioned in Section 20 of the Code a suit may be instituted in the City Civil Court when the cause of action wholly or in part arises in the city of Calcutta. Leave of the Court to institute the suit in such a case is not required. Clause 12 of the Letters Patent of the High Court does not apply to the City Civil Court. Question (b) : In view of the answer given above this question does not arise.