Important Point—It is date of judgment and decree appealed against which is relevant to decide competence of forum to consider such appeal.

1. What is the effect of the Notification No.C.0202/92 dated 14.10.2014 issued by the High Court of Gujarat, enhancing the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Courts established under the Gujarat Civil Courts Act, 2005, with effect from 01.11.2014, is the issue before this Court.

(The answer is in paragraph 10 of this judgment)

2.1 Challenge in this First Appeal is made by the original plaintiff to the judgment and decree passed by the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Navsari dated 31.08.2012, dismissing the Special Civil Suit No.3 of 1996. The claim for the jurisdiction, is stated to be Rs.5,00,600/- and the Court Fees is paid accordingly. The original defendant had filed caveat also before this Court. The appeal is filed on 26.11.2012, which was admitted by this Court vide order dated 01.03.2013. The appeal is pending for final hearing. During the pendency of this Appeal, an application being Civil Application No.11141 of 2014, was moved by the original appellant for early hearing of the Appeal, which was rejected by this Court vide order dated 30.09.2014. Thereafter, with the issuance of the Notification in question dated 14.10.2014, Registry submitted a note on 15.11.2014 for appropriate order, that the appeal be transferred to the respective District Court. No order on the said note is passed so far. The original appellant again moved Civil Application No.4189 of 2015 for fixing date of hearing of this Appeal. On the said application also, Registry has put similar note on 13.04.2015, annexing therewith the copy of the Notification in question dated 14.10.2014. It is under these circumstances, that this issue has cropped up before this Court.

2.2 Since the answer to the above issue may also affect other matters as well, learned advocates who are not representing the parties to this First Appeal were also requested to assist the Court, so that the issue can be looked at from all possible dimensions. It is noted that, at the request of this Court, learned senior advocate Mr. Shalin Mehta, learned advocates Mr. M.B. Gandhi, Mr. Mehul S. Shah, Mr. Mehul Sharad Shah, Mr. J.A. Adeshra, Mr. D.P. Kinariwala, Mr. Harshadray Dave, Mr. Vivek Mapara and Mr. Shashwat U. Shukla, have assisted the Court. During the course of hearing, learned advocates have referred to various statutory provisions and also relied on certain decisions of Honourable the Supreme Court of India as well as of this Court, which are referred to, while dealing with the relevant argument, to the extent necessary.

3.1 The first line of argument is that, all the Appeals pending before this Court on the effective date of the Notification i.e. 01.11.2014 should be transferred to the concerned District Court, if as per the enhanced pecuniary jurisdiction, the concerned District Court is competent to consider the said Appeals. Registry has also put note on this line, for appropriate order.

3.2 The second line of argument is that, those Appeals, which are filed on and after 01.11.2014, for which, as per the enhanced pecuniary jurisdiction, the concerned District Court is competent, should not have been registered by this Court and if that is so done, those Appeals are required to be transferred to the concerned District Court. It is submitted that, on and from 01.11.2014, it is the District Court which would be the competent Court to hear Appeal from the decree passed by the Court of Senior Civil Judge in original suits and proceedings of civil nature, when the amount or value of the subject matter of the original suit or proceedings is less than ten lakhs of rupees. It is submitted that there can not be more than one competent Court for any statutory Appeal and for this reason, even those Appeals, which are registered by this Court on and after 01.11.2014 need to be transferred to the Court below.

3.3 The third line of argument is that, it is the date of the institution of the suit/proceedings, in which the judgment appealed against is passed, which is relevant. It is submitte