Sukhul v. Nanhoo

1. A certain suit was tried and decided by the Munsiff of Damoh. An appeal was preferred from his decree to the District Court and went on the file of an Additional District Judge who dismissed it. The Munsiff then gave sanction under Section 195 of the Cr PC for the prosecution of the present applicant. Under Cl. 6 of the above section the applicant applied to the District Court for revocation of the sanction. This application having been laid before the District Judge he returned the application to the applicant with the following endorsement.

“This application should have been made to the Court of the Addition District Judge, Damoh, which is the Court of inferior appellate jurisdiction within the meaning of Clause a, sub-Section 7 Section 195 of the Cr PC. (see Ramkrishnapuri v. Mohonlal (1912) 8 NLR 57. The application is thus returned for presentation to that Court.”

2. Thereupon the application was presented to the Additional District Judge at Damoh and he has returned it for presentation to the District Judge on the perfectly valid ground that he is merely a delegate of the District Judge for trying cases specifically made over to him and that cases coming under Section 195(6) of the Cr PC have not been so delegated.

3. The litigating public may well wring their hands over the inconsistencies of law when it is interpreted in this way to a reductio abeurdum. Yet the matter is simple enough, the ruling cited by the learned District Judge is perfectly correct, but it has no bearing here. It refers to different Courts of appeal and not to different Judges of the same Court of appeal. The Revenue District of Saugor and Damoh constitute a single Civil District. There is only one District Court for that area and it is worked by a District Judge and several Additional District Judges one of whom sits at Damoh. Appeals from the Court of Munsiffs in the Saugor Damoh Civil District lie to the District Court and not to any particular Judge though they go before the different Judges of that Court for disposal according to the distribution of business. An application for revocation of the sanction granted by Munsiff in Damoh will consequently lie in the District Court, and if it is filed at the head quarters of that Court at Saugor it is duly presented and must be dealt with according to law. That is to say the District Judge must himself deal with it unless he is authorized to delegate the disposal of it to any other Judge of his Court. The learned District Judge in this case fell into the error of supposing that the District Judge sitting at Saugor and the Additional District Judge sitting at Damoh constitute two different appellate Courts, the latter being of inferior jurisdiction to the former. That is not the case. They (the District Judge and Additional Judge) are two Judges of the same Court, with equal pecuniary and local jurisdiction but the District Judge is the Administrative superior and the Additional District Judge is limited to cases which are allotted to him by general or special order. The application for revision of the order of the Additional District Judge is dismissed and it is directed that the application for revocation of sanction filed therewith be returned to the applicant for presentation with a copy of this order to the District Judge.

P.N/R.K

4. Application dismissed.