JUDGMENT

Page, C J - The question that arises for determination in this case is whether a mortgagee's suit for sale is a snit for land within Clause 10 of the Letters Patent.

2. Clause 10 runs as follows:

Original jurisdiction as to suit.--And we do further ordain that the High Court of Judicature at Rangoon in the exercise of its ordinary civil jurisdiction shall be empowered to receive, try and determine suits of every description if, in the case of suits for land or other immovable property such land or property shall be situated, or in all other cases if the cause of action shall have arisen, either wholly, or, in case the leave of the Court shall have been first obtained, in part, within the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the said High Court, or if the defendant at the time of the commencement of the suit shall dwell, or carry on business, or personally work for gain within such limits; except that the said High Court shall not have such original jurisdiction; in case's falling within the jurisdiction of the Rangoon Small Causes Court.

3. The material facts are simple and not in dispute. On 19th December 1931 the defendant, A.R.A.R.R.M. Chettyar Firm, the name under which, Arunachalam Chettyar who resides in the Ramnad District of the Madras Presidency carries on business, executed a promissory note for Rs. 2,700 and interest in favour of the plaintiff for money lent, and as further security for the loan, created a mortgage by deposit of title-deeds in respect of certain land situate in the Myaungmya District outside the-limits of the ordinary orginal civil jurisdiction of the High Court at Rangoon.. The sole issue between the parties is whether this Court has jurisdiction under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent to entertain a suit in which the plaintiff seeks on, enforce the said mortgage by sale of the mortgaged land. Now, in connection with the construction of Clause 10 of the Letters Patent, which is substantially in the same terms as the corresponding clauses in the Letters Patent of the High Courts at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, other questions arise apart from the question which it is necessary to decide in the present suit, but I resist the temptation to enter upon a discussion of these further questions, because it is a wholesome rule of judicial practice that a Court ought to decide only such questions as; are necessary for the due determination of the suit before it; and for the purpose in hand it is common ground that the whole of the land subject to the mortgage in suit is situate outside the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the Court, and that the defendant at the commencement of the suit was residing in the Madras Presidency, and was not dwelling or carrying on business or personally working for the gain within such limits.

4. The two issues therefore that fall for determination are:(1) What is the meaning of the expression "suits for land" in Clause 10 of the Letters Patent, and (2) does a mortgagee's suit for sale fall within the ambit of the term "suits for land" in the sense in which it is used in Clause 10 of the Letters Patent? Sir Charles Wood, in his despatch of 14th May 1862, observed:

As it is very desirable that every suit should be instituted in the Court of the district in which the property forming the subject of dispute is situated, or in which the cause of action has its origin, or in which the defendant resides or carries on business, the jurisdiction hitherto exercised by the Supreme Court (on the ground of constructive inhabitancy or otherwise) over persons and property beyond the local limits of the Presidency Town, but within the limits of the Presidency or Division subject to the authority of the High Court has not been vested In the High Court. The concluding provision of Clause 11 provides that the exercise of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the Court shall be confined to the local limits of the Presidency Town, with power