A Civil Court has jurisdiction to entertain any proceedings on a holiday and a judicial act done on a holiday is not invalid.

( 1 ) THIS revision petition has been filed by the petitioner who preferred an appeal before the District Judge, West Nimar, Mandleshwar.

( 2 ) ON 16th May, 1981 an application under Section 151 was filed that although the Civil Courts are in vacations but in view of the urgency of the stay application the matter be heard during vacations and an order be passed. The learned District Judge rejected the prayer and by the impugned order directed that the papers of the appeal be kept in the office as nothing could be done during the vacation and further directed that it be listed for hearing on the reopening day i. e. 15th June, 1981. It is against this order passed by the learned District Judge that this revision petition is filed.

( 3 ) THE learned District Judge took the view that during summer vacations the Civil Courts cannot entertain any appeal or application in spite of the fact that Section 21 (3) of the Madhya Pradesh Civil Courts Act provides that an order passed during a holiday or during vacations will not be illegal only because the order was passed during the vacations. The learned District Judge took the view that Section 21 (3) is only a provision which saves any orders passed and, therefore, further observed that there appears to be a defect in the Civil Courts Act and refused to exercise jurisdiction vested in him and, therefore, the present revision petition has been filed.

( 4 ) SECTION 21 of the M. P. Civil Courts Act reads as under :

"21. Vacations: (1) Subject to the approval of the State Government the High Court shall prepare a list of days to be observed in each year as holidays in the Civil Court subordinate thereto. (2) The list shall be published in the Official Gazette. (3) A judicial act done by a Court on a day specified in a list under Sub-section (2) shall not be invalid by reason only of its having been done on that day. "

This provision clearly provides that if any judicial act is done on a day which is specified in the list under Sub-section (2) i. e. the list of holidays and vacations will not be invalid merely because it was dons on a day which was included in the list under Subsection (2 ). The purpose of this provision appears to be clear that if on a day which is included in the list as a holiday or as a vacation if any urgent matter his to be attended to by the Civil Court and, the judicial acts (any order) are passed by a Civil Court on that day it could not be said that these orders were invalid because they were passed on a day on which the Civil Court was closed. The purpose of this provision clearly appears to be to provide for such contingency when an urgent order has to be passed even on a day when the Civil Courts are closed. The learned District Judge felt that the law was defective and needed some amendment. That may be so but on that ground it could not be said that an urgent matter could not be attended to even if it requires to be attended immediately.

( 5 ) LEARNED District Judge felt that Subsection (3) of Section 21 is merely a curative provision and, therefore, it does not confer jurisdiction on a Civil Court to act on a day which is holiday. It appears that the learned Judge misconstrued the provisions of the Civil Courts Act. The Civil Court or a Judge appointed under the Civil Courts Act does not cease to be a Court merely because on a particular day it is declared a holiday and, therefore, it is wrong to say that on a holiday the learned Judge had no jurisdiction to entertain any proceedings. This provision has been enacted only to repel any contention if advanced that if any judicial act has been done on a holiday it will not be valid and in order to repel such contentions it has been provided in Subsection (3) of Section 21 as under :--

"section 21. (1) to (2) (3) A judicial act done by a Court on a day specified in a list under Sub-section (2) shall not be invalid by reason only if its having been done on that day. "

As per the scheme of the Civil Courts