Scott, C.J:— The question arising in the suit in which this reference has been made is whether a decision in favour of the plaintiff upon a preliminary defence that the matters in dispute were caste questions outside the jurisdiction of civil Courts, amounts to a preliminary decree from which the unsuccessful party must at once appeal by reason of section 97 of the code, and the referring judgments call attention to Sidhanath Dhonddev v. Ganesh Govind, in which it was held that decisions as to misjoinder, limitation and jurisdiction are preliminary decrees. This Court is of opinion that the judgment in the last mentioned case was wrong and that such decisions are not preliminary decrees nor is the decision in the referred case a preliminary decree. We also think certain dicta in Narayan Balkrishna v. Gopal Jiv Ghadi, which are based upon Sidhanath Dhonddev v. Ganesh Govind, go too far.
G.B.R