JUDGMENT

Sulaiman, J. - This appeal was filed in the Court of the District Judge of Bareilly from an order of the election commissioners purporting to act as a civil Court u/s 476, Criminal P.C. As the learned District Judge happened to be one of the Commissioners himself he referred the case to this Court recommending that it should be transferred from his file. Without prejudice to the question whether an appeal lay we directed that the case be transferred to the High Court.

2. A preliminary objection has been taken on behalf of the respondent that if the commissioners had no jurisdiction to proceed u/s 476, Criminal P.C. no appeal lay from their order at all. We thick that the preliminary objection cannot prevail. The commissioners have professedly acted as a Civil Court and assumed jurisdiction u/s 476, Criminal P.C. As an appeal is expressly provided from an order passed by a civil Court u/s 476, Criminal P.C., the present appeal does lie even though the commissioners might have acted without jurisdiction. This principle was laid down as early as 1891 in the case of Jwala Prasad v. Salig Ram (1891) 13 All. 575. That this has been the uniform practice of this Court is shown by th