A.D.Koshal, J. - (1.) THE Plaintiff filed a suit for possession of agricultural land which was partially decreed by Shri N. C. Gupta, Subordinate Judge, 2nd Class, Tarn Taran. on the 14th of June, 1958 The jurisdictional value of the suit was stated in the plaint to be Rs 255/ - Dissatisfied with the decree of the trial Court, the Plaintiff filed an appeal in the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Amritsar, on the 26th of June, 1958 In the memorandum of appeal, the jurisdictional value of the suit was given at the same figure as in the plaint. According to the law then in force, the Senior Subordinate Judge at Amritsar, had jurisdiction to hear an appeal arising from a land suit only if the jurisdictional value of the appeal did not exceed Rs. 250/ -. The appeal filed by the Plaintiff in his Court, therefore, was returned to the former and was re instituted in the Court of District Judge, Amritsar, on the 28th of October, 1958, by when it was clearly time -barred. The Plaintiff made an application to that Court under Section 5 of the Indian Limitation Act praying for extension of time on the ground that his counsel had originally filed, the appeal in the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Amritsar through a bona fide mistake. The appeal was dismissed on the 31st of December, 1959, by Shri Basant Lal Aggarwal, Additional District Judge, Amritsar, who held that the mistake of the Plaintiff's counsel was not bonafide. Aggrieved by the dismissal of his appeal, the Plaintiff has come up in second appeal to this Court
(2.) NO exception can be taken to the order of the lower appellate Court. The provisions of law regulating the institution of appeals from decrees of the trial Courts in land suits have been quite clearly understood all along and it is not even urged that they suffered from any ambiguity at the relevant point of time. As remarked by the learned Additional Judge, every lawyer was expected to know that the enhanced appellate powers of a Senior Subordinate Judge in the case of a land suit could be exercised only if the jurisdictional value of the suit was no more than Rs. 250/ -. The counsel for the Plaintiff, who filed the appeal in the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Amritsar, was, therefore, clearly negligent in the performance of his duties and by no stretch of imagination, can his mistake be characterised as bona fide. For the reasons given above, I find no force in this appeal which is dismissed with costs.;