The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation of the Bengal, Agra and Assam Civil Courts Act, 1887, Section 19, regarding the pecuniary jurisdiction of Munsiffs and the power of the High Court to confer such jurisdiction.

I.A. Ansari, J.

1. The present Civil Reference has arisen out of the judgment and order, dated 15.06.2004, passed by the learned District Judge, Shillong, in RFA (TCA) No. 2(h)/2003, whereby the learned Single Judge, while allowing the appeal, made a reference to the High Court observing thus,"...pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munisff is uncertain till date and thereby causing lots of confusion and inconvenience to the litigants, lawyers and Courts. Therefore, I am of the view that the matter need to be referred to the Hon'ble High Court for the valuable opinion and direction". In terms of the directions given by Hon'ble the Chief Justice by order, dated 18.06.2004, passed in Civil Reference, the reference has been laid before this Court on the judicial side.

2. I have heard Ms. A. Pal, learned Counsel, who had appeared on behalf of the Appellant in RFA (TCA) No. 2(H)/2003 aforementioned. Looking into the importance of the subject matter of the reference, I have also heard Mr. S.R. Sen, learned Senior Counsel, as Amicus Curiae.

3. For proper appreciation of the subject of reference, the history of the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munsiff, at Shillong, needs to be traced and in doing so, what needs to be borne in mind is that in the entire State of Meghalaya, there is only one Court of Munsiff and the same is located at Shillong. The question raised in the reference is, in short, this: what is the present pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munsiff at Shillong?

4. The question posed above brings me to Bengal, Agra and Assam Civil Courts Act, 1887, (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 1887), for, the constitution of the Civil Courts in the State of Meghalaya, the hierarchy thereof and the pecuniary jurisdiction of the respective Civil Courts are really traceable to the Act of 1887, the object of the Act being, as its preamble reveals, consolidation and amendment of the laws relating to Civil Courts in Benal, North-Western Provinces and Assam. We may also bear in mind that the State of Meghalaya was curved out of the State of Assam on 27th January, 1972. Section 3 of the Act of 1887, which embodies the provisions relating to constitution of the Civil Courts, lays down that there shall be four classes of Civil Courts, these four classes of the Courts being the Courts of District Judge, Additional District Judge, Subordinate Judge and Munsiff. It may be noted that by an amendment of Section 3, which was introduced on 16.8.1967, the words 'Subordinate Judge' were substituted, in terms of Section 2 of the Assam Act XII of 1967, by the words' Assistant District Judge'. It may also be noted that Section 4 of the Act of 1887 empowers the State Govt. to fix the number of the Civil Courts aforementioned.

5. Before proceeding further, one may point out that Chapter III of the Act of 1887 embodies the provisions relating to pecuniary jurisdiction of the Civil Courts. It is Section 19, contained in Chapter III of the Act, 1887, which lays down the extent of the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munsiffs. Section19 has undergone amendments from time to time before undergoing the present amendments, the relevant portions of Section 19 read as follows:

19. Extent of jurisdiction of Munsiff- (1) Save as aforesaid, and subject to the provisions of Sub-section (2) the jurisdiction of a Munsiff extends to all like suits of which the value does not exceed one thousand rupees.

(2) The State Government may, on the recommendation of the High Court, direct, by notification in the Official Gazette, with respect to any Munsiff named therein, that his jurisdiction shall extend to all like suits of such value not exceeding two thousand rupees as may be specified in the notification.

[Provided that the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, delegate to the High Court its powers under this Section]

6. From a careful reading of Section 19 of Act of 1887, as it, originally, stood, what transpires is that while under Sub-section (1) of Section 19