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Subrahmanyam, J.—This is an application by the fiat defendant to revoke the leave granted to the plaintiff in Appln. No. 1l44 of 1957, to institute the suit in this Court The plaintiff married the first defendant in the City of Madras in 1946. He was and continue to be employed in Calcutta The plaintiff and the first defendant lived to gather in Calcutta after the marriage until sometime in 1953 prefer about the middle of 1955 the plaintiff has been living in Madras This suit relates to the proceedings in O.S. No. 632 of 1956. on the file of the Calcutta High Court The providing in that suit. taking them at their face value. disclose the following fact: The plaintiff stiffed that suit under S. 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955; praying for dissolution of her marriage With the list defendant the ground urged was that he was living in adultery with the second defendant The first defendant did not appear in that suit. The plaintiff sent an after davit from Madras proving has case The affidavit was used by feet solicitor on instruction verified from her. For permission to use the affidavit as evidence'' the Slitter used a medical certificate sent the plaintiff in Which the doctor-certified that aha was not in a fit state of health to proceed to Calcutta to give evidence in the suit The Court accepted the affidavit, found the plaintiff''s case proved end passed a decree for divorce dissolving fore marriage with the first defendant In this suit, the plaintiff pray (1) for a declaration that the Calcutta High Court are forged document obtained from the plaintiff by reason of fraud and deception practiced on her by the first defendant and that, therefore the decree passed in. that suit is illegal null and void, and not binding on the plaintiff and that it may be set aside; (2) that a declaration be granted that the marriage between the plaintiff and the first defendant is still subsisting and is valid; and (3) that a declaration be granted that the marriage between the first and second defendants is illegal and bigamous. Declaration (3) is asked for because subsequent to the decree of divorce passed by the Calcutta High Court, the first defendant married the second defendant. The first defendant states in these proceedings that his marriage with the second defendant has since been dissolved. The allegations of fact on which the plaintiff claims the relief set out above are these : The first defendant obtained her signature to the document which she now infers was the plait filed in. that suit by concealing from her the contents of that document and misrepresenting to her the nature of the document and the purpose for which her signature was obtained to that document Mr. Adiga, an Advocate of this Court acting on the first defendant''s instigation and on false representations, procured her signature in the affidavit which she now finds has been used as her affidavit to prove the claim said to have been made by her in the plaint instituted in her name She was not aware at any time during the pungency of those proceedings Or on the dale of the passing of the decree in that suit that a suit was being or had been, instituted in her name or that a decree for dissolution of the marriage would be or was about to be passed in any such suit. She learnt about that decree much later.
Along with the plaint in this suit, the plaintiff presented Appl. No. 1144 of 1957, praying for leave to institute the suit in this Court Leave was granted ex prate. The first defendant prays that the leave be revoked The first reason alleged in support of this application to revoke the leave is that no part of the cause of action arose in the City of Madras, Learned Counsel for the applicant contends that the cause of action for the suit consists only of the proceedings had and the decrees passed in the High Court of Calcutta and that consequently no part of the cause of action arose within the limits of this Court''s ordinary original civil jurisdiction Cause of action by the definition which is now part of the vocabulary of the law, cons tats of the bundle of facts which a plaintiff should prove in order to entitle him to the relief claimed. In order that the plaintiff in this suit might become entitled to the relief claimed in the plaint she would have to prove that to the document which she now finds was presented in the Calcutta High Court as her plaint her signature was taken by fraud and that the proceedings before the Commissioner of Oaths, by which she is alleged to have sworn to the affidavit which was used in the suit to prove the case set out in the plaint alleged to have been filed by her. were also proceedings in which she played a part, which by fraud and misrepresentation she was induced by the first defendant''s friends to play without knowing the real purposes for which she was required to act in that manner But the Calcutta High Court, believing that the plaint had been instituted by her and that the plaint and the affidavit presented to the Court were entitled to their face value, accepted the affidavit and passed a decree Every one of these facts would have to be proved by the plaintiff before she would become entitled to the relief''s prayed for in this plaint. The cause of action in other words does not consist merely of the end of the story, namely the events that happened in the High Court at Calcutta but consists of the beginning, the middle and the end that is to say. of the entire story commencing with the vague hints that the first defendant made to the plaintiff in Madras of the help she would have to render him to extricate him out of an ugly situation and ending with the decree for divorce. It may often happen that the substance of the cause of action it concentrated in the beginning of the story while the end is merely formal That perhaps is the case here It may in other cases, happen that the story begins innocuously and the sting is in the tail In either, case, the beginning the middles and the end form parts of the cause of action. I hold that, where a part of the facts which entitle a plaintiff to have a decree set aside occur within the limits of the jurisdiction of a Court other than the Court which passed the decree, a suit to set aside the decree may. subject to leave being granted in appropriate cases, be instituted either in such other Court or in the Court which passed the decree.
In support of the proposition that, except where in pursuance of the decree action has been taken in a Court other than the Court which passed the decree, in which event such other Court may have jurisdiction to entertain a suit to set aside the decree, the Court which passed the decree is the only Court which has jurisdiction to entertain the suit to set aside the decree. The learned Counsel for the applicant relies on Bisbee Solomon v. Abdul Asia 4 Cal. Law Rep, 366. In that case a decree had been passed by the Calcutta High Court and the suit to set aside the decree was instituted in that Court There could be no question on the facts that the Calcutta High Court had jurisdiction to entertain and try the suit. The question whether any other Court had jurisdiction to entertain the suit did not arise for determination and the observation in that judgment that the Calcutta High Court alone had jurisdiction is obiter Learned Counsel relies next on Umbra Sing v. Kardeo 29 All. 418. In that case, a decree passed by the Small Cause Court at Calcutta was transferred for execution to a Court in Utter Pradesh. Nothing had been done in Utter Pradesh by way of executing the decree The Allahabad High Court held that a suit to set aside the decree could be instituted only in Calcutta. That again, is not a case where any part of the events which constituted the plaintiff''s cause of action for praying for the relief that the decree of the Small Causes Court at Calcutta be set aside, happened anywhere outside Calcutta. I find that part of the cause of action for this suit arose within the city of Madras and that, subject to leave being granted, this Court has jurisdiction to entertain and try the suit
The next ground on which it is prayed that leave be revoked is that this Court has not exercised its discretion properly in granting leave The substance of the cause of action pleaded in this case has its seat in Madras. The deception and the fraud are alleged to have taken place at Madras The witnesses who have to prove or disprove the facts alleged by the plaintiff in relation to the deception and the fraud live in Madras. The plaintiff would have to examine herself; and probably one side or the other might examine the Medical Officer who issued the certificate on the basis of which the Calcutta High Court permitted her to use her affidavit as evidence, and the Commissioner of Oaths. There may be other persona whom the parties might examine to prove or disprove the facts stated by the plaintiff to have taken place in Madras in relation to her signing the document used as her plaint in Calcutta the letters, if any, to the Solicitor at Calcutta and the affidavit which was used as evidence in the case. It is true that first defendant who is residing at Calcutta would have to be examined in the Suit The Solicitor who acted for the plaintiff might also have to be examined. Hut he had not met the plaintiff or taken instructions from her in person Therefore, he would probably have only to file the letters said to have been received forest her The first defendant''s brother who is living in Calcutta may also have to be examined. But, both the first defendant and his breather have their mother living In madras and they have facilities for staying in. Madras while they are being examined here. On the other hand, to compel the plaintiff to go to Calcutta to examine herself and her witnesses might virtually be to deprive her of any opportunity to prove her case, assuming, of course, that her case is true The balance of convenience, therefore, is clearly in favour of the suit being instituted at Madras instead of a similar suit being instituted at Calcutta. I find that the grant of leave is proper. The application is dismissed. No costs.