CHINIA DEVI AND ANOTHER Vs. DAYANATH GUPTA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision petition under Section 115 of the Civil Procedure Code is directed against the order of the Additional District Judge on issue No. 1 in S.C.C. Suit No. 69 of 1969. The issue was tried as a preliminary issue and he held that he had jurisdiction to try the suit. Feeling aggrieved by that order, the defendants have come up in revision.

(2.) THE suit is for ejectment of the defendant-respondents from the suit premises. The suit it valued at Rs. 19,800/-. The defendants contended that since the value of the subject matter is above Rs. 5,000, the suit could not be tried as Small Cause Suit in view of sub­section (3) of Section 15 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'Small Cause Courts Act') (Central Act No. IX of 1946). That sub-section in the Central Act reads:

(3.) SRI S.D. Agrawal, learned counsel for the revisionist-petitioners, contended that Section 15 of the Small Cause Courts Act is the key section in that Act in regard to which suits can be tried as suits of small causes nature and that even after the amendment of that section by U.P. Act No. 37 of 1972, the pecuniary limit for trying a suit for eviction of a lessee from a building after the determination of his lease as a suit of small cause nature is only Rs. 5,000. He maintained that since the value of the present suit is far in excess Rs. 5,000, the learned Additional District Judge had no jurisdiction to try that suit as a suit of small cause nature.