NATUBHAI CHANDUBHAI DHOBI Vs. KOKILABEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Revision Application under Sec. 115 of the C.P.C. the petitioners-original defendants challenge the order dated 28-12-1998 passed by the learned Civil Judge (S.D.), Anand, rejecting Application Exh. 37 in a suit which was previously,numbered as Special Civil Suit No. 8 of 1989 and now re-numbered as Regular Civil Suit No. 453 of 1998.

(2.) The respondents-original plaintiffs filed the present suit for recovering a sum of Rs. 33.000.00 with interest and costs from the petitioners in the year 1989. The suit was instituted in the Court of the Civil Judge (Senior Division) and it was also numbered as a Special Civil Suit. In the year 1993 the Bombay Civil Courts Act came to be amended and the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Civil Court (Junior Division) was raised from Rs. 20,000.00 to Rs. 50.000.00. The petitioners filed the present application on 17-9-1998 contending that the suit was required to be numbered as a Regular Civil Suit and transferred to the Court of the learned Civil Judge (Junior Division) as the valuation of the suit was less than Rs. 50.000.00 and therefore, the Court of the Civil Judge (Senior Division) has no jurisdiction to try the suit. The application came to be partly allowed and partly rejected by the learned Civil Judge (Senior Division), Anand, by directing that the suit be registered as a Regular Civil Suit but then holding that even after the suit is re-numbered as Regular Civil Suit instead of Special Civil Suit the Court of the Civil Judge (S.D.) will continue to have jurisdiction to try the suit. It is against the aforesaid order that the present Civil Revision Application is filed by the petitioners.

(3.) At the hearing of this Civil Revision Application Mr. Mehta. learned Counsel for the petitioners has submitted that Sec. 6 of the Amending Act itself provided that all suits and proceedings of a civil nature wherein the subject-matter exceeds in amount or value twenty thousand rupees but does not exceed fifty thousand rupees. pending in a Court of Civil Judge (S.D.) immediately before the commencement of the Bombay Civil Courts (Gujarat Amendment) Act. shall after such commencement (i.e., w.e.f. 1-11-1993) stand transferred to and be disposed of by a Civil Judge (J.D.) within the local limits of his ordinary jurisdiction. It is. therefore, vehemently submitted by Mr. Mehta that in view of the aforesaid statutory provision the Civil Judge (Senior Division) does not have jurisdiction to try such suits.