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Judgment
The decision of the Court of Appeal in O.S. No. 1 of 1897 on the file of the District Munsif of Gudivada that the rate of rent for the class of
lands now in question is Rs. 6 per acre is clearly res judicata in favor of the landlord, the defendant in this suit, and the fact that by virtue of Section
586, C.P.C. no second appeal lay to the High Court in that case, does not make such decision inoperative as res judicata in the present suit
Ahmed v. Moidin ILR 24 M. 444. The contention that, as the former suit was a regular suit and the present only a small cause suit, the decision in
such former suit cannot operate as res judicata in the present suit because the District Munsif of Gudivada cannot take cognizance on his regular
side of this suit which is a Small Cause Suit is manifestly untenable, Under the Small Cause Courts Act a suit cognizable by a Small Cause Court is
not to be instituted and tried by an ordinary Civil Court if, and so long as, within the local limits of its jurisdiction, a Small Cause Court is
established competent to take cognizance of such Small Cause Suit. But that circumstance does not within the meaning of Section 13 of the CPC
make the ordinary Civil Court, viz., in this case the Court of the District Munsif of Gudivada on his regular side, a Court which is not a Court of
jurisdiction competent to try the present suit. The decrees of the lower Court are therefore1 reversed and the suits dismissed with costs throughout.