The Plaintiff sued for account as for money due to him and, in his plaint, valued the claim at Rs. 2,000. He afterwards intimated to the Court that he desired to alter the amount of his claim and eventually he fixed it at Rs. 9,000.
On the report of the Commissioner who was directed to make an account, the suit was dismissed. The Plaintiff appealed to the District Judge, and the District Judge, after considering the matter from different points of view, refused to hear the appeal on the ground that it should have been made to the High Court and he returned the memorandum of appeal to be presented to that Court.
The Plaintiff-Appellant then obtained rule from this Court in the alternative either that his appeal should be admitted and heard by this Court or that an order might be passed under sec. 622, C.C.P, directing the District Judge to hear the appeal. We have for somewhat embarrassed by the terms of rule and we accordingly required the learned pleader for the Plaintiff-Petitioner to elect on which ground he desired to proceed, for we may observe that it would be impossible for us to make the rule absolute seeing that the same rule deals with two different matters in the alternative. The learned pleader for the Petitioner has elected to ask for an order under sec. 622 directing the District Judge to receive and hear the appeal. In his petition of appeal, the Plaintiff stated that his claim was to recover from the Defendant Rs. 4,500. But however that may be, a matter ordinarily affecting the District Judge's jurisdiction, the case really rests on the terms of sec. 21 of the Civil Courts Act which declares that an appeal from a decree or order of a Subordinate Judge shall lie to the District Judge where the value of the original suit in which the decree or order was made did not exceed Rs. 5,000. In the present case, the value of the original suit, as brought, was Rs. 2,000 and although possibly under the law, having regard to the nature of the suit, a decree might be passed eventually for a larger amount, the value of the suit must be considered as that stated in the plaint (Rs. 2,000) which has not been amended. In this view, we think that the appeal should be heard by the District Judge. An order will issue accordingly. The costs of this rule which we assess at 5 gold mohurs will abide the result.
S.C.S
Rule made absolute.