Now, dist courts to decide civil appeals valued up to 10L
Rosy Sequeira I TNN
Mumbai: In a move that will clear huge backlog, all civil appeals pending in the Bombay High Court in which the claim amount or value is up to Rs 10 lakh shall be sent to district courts in the state.
A full bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah, Justice Sunil Deshmukh of Aurangabad bench and Justice Sadhana Jadhav of Nagpur bench heard a reference from a single judge. Earlier, under the Bombay Civil Court Act, all suits decided by a civil judge of which the amount or value of subject matter exceeds Rs 10,000, an appeal would go directly to the high court. Amendments from time to time enhanced this limit to Rs 10 lakh.
After the 1999 amendment increasing it to Rs 2 lakh, a single judge on December 16, 1999, sent all pending appeals from HC whose value was Rs 2 lakh and less to the district courts. In 2008, a division bench of HC took a view that notwithstanding the amendments, HC could hear and dispose of pending appeals on its file. Another single HC judge on March 4, 2011, while hearing a batch of appeals, agreed with advocate Vineet Naik that the division bench order needs reconsideration and referred it to a full bench.
In the meantime, the state legislature on January 16, 2012, introduced a further amendment enhancing the district court's jurisdiction from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and also clarified that all pending appeals in HC of the said value would stand transferred to the district courts. In view of this, the full bench has held the reference to be academic. “The issue has already been addressed by the legislature. Prima facie, it is an academic exercise,” said Justice Shah pronouncing the verdict over videoconference.
Source: Times of India, 23.2.2012
