Haladhar Mahato and Madhu Mahato vs Kali Prasanna Ghose

This is an appeal from a decision of the Subordinate Judge of Lohardaga, dated the 14th (sic) June 1895. The case was tried originally by Babu Krishna Nath Roy who had the powers of a Munsif under sec. 36 of the Civil Courts Act. That section enables the Government to empower any officer with all the powers of any Civil Court. It has been argued first that "any officer" does not include an officer with judicial powers, though in the same breath it is said that it would include Deputy Collectors and Deputy Magistrates who are judicial officers. It was then said that the term cannot include any officer who has authority under the Civil Courts Act. We do not see why there should be any such limitation, and we cannot regard the term as signifying anything else than what it literally means.

Then it was said that it is not practicable to apply another portion of the Act, that is to say, the provision of sec. 22 which relates to the special jurisdiction of a District Judge. The value of the suit is below Rs. 1,000; presumably it was tried by a Munsif, and the appeal would lie to the Judge. We do not, therefore, see any difficulty on this score, as sec. 22 empowers the Judge "to transfer to any Subordinate Judge under his administrative Control any appeals pending before him from the decrees or orders of Munsifs." The result is that the appeal is dismissed with costs.