The transfer of suits from one court to another should not be ordered solely to suit the convenience of the defendants, and various factors, including the convenience of both parties and the nature of the suit, should be considered before deciding on the transfer application.

1. Six out of nine defendants in O. S. No. 100/1956 on the file of the Subordinate Judge's Court at Trivandrum have filed this application praying that the suit may be transferred to the file of the District Judge's Court at Nagercoil. The main ground urged in support of that prayer is that another similar suit, O. S. No. 118/1956, is pending in the Nagercoil District Court against the same defendants and that therefore it will be more convenient for them to have both the suits tried in the Nagercoil District Court. The plaintiffs in the two suits are different, though both the suits have been instituted by the two sets of plaintiffs in their representative capacity as per the sanctions obtained under S.92 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The properties involved in the two suits and the reliefs claimed are stated to be substantially the same. The properties are alleged to be trust properties endowed for the benefit of the Christian community belonging to a particular denomination represented by the plaintiffs. The main reliefs claimed in the suit are that the defendants may be removed from their management of these properties, that they may be called upon to render accounts of their management and that scheme may be settled by the court for the proper management of the properties. The plaintiffs in O.S. No. 100/1956 (who are the respondents to the present application) object to the transfer of that suit to the Nagercoil District Court.

2. The application purports to have been filed under S.22, 23 and 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Of these sections, S.24 which deals with the general power of the High Court and the District Courts to transfer at any stage a suit pending in any court, subordinate to such courts, to any other court subordinate to such courts, has obviously no relevancy to the present application. The present application is really governed by S.22 read with S.23. In respect of a suit which may be instituted in any one of two or more courts and which is instituted in one such court, the defendant is given a right under S.22 to file an application at the time of settlement of the issues or at any earlier stage, to have the suit transferred to another court. The court before which that application is filed has, alter hearing the objections of the other parties, to determine in which of several courts having jurisdiction; the suit shall proceed. S.23 indicates the court in which such an application is to be filed and for this purpose the applications are grouped into three different categories. Subsection (1) of S.23 deals with applications where the two concerned courts are subordinate to the same appellate court and states that applications for transfer of a suit under S.22 from one such court to the other, shall be made to the appellate court. Sub-section (2) deals with applications where the concerned courts are subordinate to different appellate courts but to the same High Court, and states that the applications shall be made to the High Court. Sub-section (3) deals with applications where the concerned courts are subordinate to different High Courts and states that the applications for transfer shall be made to the High Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the court in which the suit is brought is situate. The present application comes under this category because the Subordinate Judge's Court at Trivandrum wherein O. S. No. 100/56 has been filed is subordinate to this High Court, while the Nagercoil District Court to which the transfer is sought is subordinate to the Madras High Court. The transfer application has to be filed in this High Court as per sub-section (3) of S.23 of the Code of Civil Procedure and in this view of the matter the maintainability of the present application is open to no objection. S.22 under which such an application has to be dealt with, does not expressly state that the suit may be transferred from one court to another. The closing portion of that section