JUDGMENT

Sir Richard Couch, Kt., C.J. - The case, as stated, assumes that Act IX of 1872 applied, and when the case was first argued before as, no question was raised as to the application of that Act, but, subsequently, when we were about to give our judgment upon the question which had been stated in the case, it was submitted to us that the Act did not apply in the Small Cause Court to a case of this kind between Hindus; that the law as it was before the Act was passed continued applicable, and the case was governed by, Hindu law. Although, the question was not raised in the case, we thought it desirable to have it argued, and I propose first to give our opinion upon it. S. 37 of Act IX of 1850, by which the Small Cause Court, Calcutta, was regulated, provides that "the Judges of the Court shall be empowered to determine all questions as well of fact as of law and equity, as administered in the Supreme Court, in all cases which they have authority to try." The words "as administered in the Supreme Court" must be construed as referring, not to the law or equity which might, at the time when the Act was passed, be administered in the Supreme Court, but to the law or equity administ