Chakravartti, C.J. - (1.) The petitioners ask for a certificate under Article 133(1) of the Constitution of India for the purpose of a proposed appeal to the Supreme Court against a judgment and decree of this Court, dated the 18th of March, 1954. Their application was made on the 12th of September, 1957. Mr. Sen Gupta, who appears for them, admits that even after credit has been given to his clients for the time taken for obtaining certified copies of the judgment and the decree, their application is too late by three years and eleven days, if Article 179 of the Limitation Act applies. He, however, contends that the Article does not apply.
(2.) In support of his contention, Mr. Sea Gupta relies on the language of Article 179. That Article prescribes the period of limitation for an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and the period prescribed is ninety days from the date of the decree appealed from. The first column of the Article, however, describes the appeal contemplated by it as an appeal "by a person desiring to appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to the Supreme Court". Mr. Sen Gupta's contention is that the Article, by reason of its own language, can apply only to appeals preferred under the Civil Procedure Code, but the appeal which his clients propose to prefer to the Supreme Court is not an appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure, but an appeal under Article 133 of the Constitution itself. He points out that no period of limitation has been prescribed anywhere for an appeal by a person desiring to appeal to the Supreme Court under the Constitution of India and the consequence, according to him, is that the right to prefer such appeals is timeless.
(3.) I find it wholly impossible to accede to Mr. Sen Gupta's contention. Although Article 133 of the Constitution provides for appeals to the Supreme Court from judgments, decrees or final orders passed in civil proceedings, the Civil Procedure Code also contains provisions relating to such appeals in Sections 109 and 110 thereof. Leaving aside the special class of appeals contemplated by Article 135 of the Constitution, and appeals by special leave, the right of appeal from all appealable judgments, decrees and orders passed in civil proceedings is conferred by Article 133. If the provisions in the Civil Procedure Code would not apply to such appeals, it is impossible to see to what appeals they would apply. The contention of Mr. Sen Gupta, if given effect to, will lead to the extraordinary result that for appeals from judgments, orders and decrees made in civil proceedings which are appealable under Article 133 of the Constitution, there is no period of limitation at all. Again, the provisions of Sections 109 & 110 of the Civil Procedure Code will be reduced to nullities, because they will not be applicable to any conceivable class of appeals, if the position is, as Mr. Sen Gupta contended, that the appeals contemplated by those sections are appeals other than those contemplated by Article 133.;