The judgment of a Court can be considered a foreign judgment based on the altered constitutional position and the provisions of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, and the Civil Procedure Code.

R. P. MOOKERJEE, J. :-The decree-holder opposite party obtained a decree on 15th May 1947, from the Court of Munsif, Jamalpur, within the district of Mymensingh, against The Governor General of India in Council, New Delhi and B.A. Railway, having its Head Office at 3 Koila-ghat Street, Calcutta. The nature of particulars of the claim on which the decree was passed cannot be ascertained from the records. On 8th December 1947, the decree-holder applied to the Court of Munsif, Jamalpur, under O. 21 R. 6, Civil P.C., for a certificate of non-satisfaction. A certificate was issued accordingly and a copy of the order was, as applied for by the decree-holder, directed by the Munsif at Jamalpur to be sent to the Registrar, Court of Small Causes, Calcutta with a copy of the decree. This order was passed in Money Execution Case No. 86 of 1947. On 13th March 1948, the decree-holder-opposite party filed is the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, an application for execution of the decree so transferred. Execution was prayed for against the parties as described in the decree and stated already. Objection was raised on behalf of the Dominion of India as to the maintainability of the execution proceedings in the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta and as against this Dominion. The learned Judge having overruled the said objections, the Dominion of India has moved this Court in revision. 2. Under the Indian Independence Act, 1947, 15th August 1947 was the appointed day and as from that date two new independent Dominions, known respectively as India and Pakistan were set up. No proceedings were pending on that day either in the Jamalpur Court or in the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta. Accordingly, the only question, so far as affecting the jurisdiction of the Court of Small Causes, is whether after the appointed day it is competent for the Calcutta Court to entertain an application for starting proceedings in execution of a decree which had been passed by the Jamalpur Court before the appointed day. Had there been proceedings pending either in the High Court or in the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta on 15th August 1947, the legal position would have been altogether different : See Naresh Chandra Bose v. Sachindra Nath Deb, Appeal from original Decree No. 111 of 1947 decided on 24th January 1949 : (AIR (37) 1950 Cal 8).

3. Whether the decree in question can be executed in the Court of Small Causes, depends principally on an adjudication as to whether from after the appointed day that decree is to be considered as one passed by a domestic Court or by a foreign one. Before we refer to the relevant provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, it is necessary to point out that before 15th August 1947, both the Jamalpore Court and the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, were Courts in British India. As such a decree passed by one of them could not then be considered by the other to be a foreign judgment. The Indian Independence Act, 1947, having brought into existence two separate and independent dominions, the Court of Jamalpore is now situate in Pakistan within the Province of East Bengal, and the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, within the Indian Dominion.

4. Section 18(3), Indian Independence Act provides :

Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, the law of British India and of the several parts thereof existing immediately before the appointed day shall, so far as applicable and with the necessary adaptations, continue as the law of each of the new Dominions and the several parts thereof until other provision is made by laws of the Legislature of the Dominion in question or by any other Legislature or other authority having power in that behalf.

5. Sub-sections (1) and (2), S. 2, Indian Independence Act describe the respective territories of the two new Dominions. Sub-section (i) of S. 9 further authorises the Governor-General to issue orders for bringing the provisions of the Indian Independence Act into effective operation and for removing