Statutory finality under rent control law excludes Letters Patent appeal against a single Judge's appellate decision.

A statutory appeal to the High Court under the Delhi Rent Control Act was held to be governed by the Act's own scheme, and the question was whether a further intra-court appeal under the Letters Patent survived. The Court reasoned that where the statute confers appellate jurisdiction on the High Court and declares the appellate order final, that finality clause excludes both a Letters Patent appeal and collateral challenge unless the statute otherwise permits it. The result was that no Letters Patent appeal lay from the single Judge's decision in the second appeal, and the statutory finality under section 43 barred further appeal.

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Issues: Whether a Letters Patent appeal lay to a Division Bench from the judgment of a single Judge of the High Court in a second appeal under section 39 of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958, and whether section 43 of that Act took away such further appeal.

Analysis: The appellate jurisdiction conferred by section 39 was to be exercised by the High Court according to its own procedure and charter. Clause 10 of the Letters Patent applied to a judgment of a single Judge passed in such an appeal, including a judgment rendered in second appellate jurisdiction against an order of a tribunal, unless the governing statute expressly or by necessary implication excluded the further appeal. Section 43, by declaring that every order passed on appeal shall be final and shall not be questioned in original suit, application or execution proceeding, was construed as imposing a complete bar: it excluded both a further appeal and collateral challenge. The authorities relied upon by the appellant did not support the proposition that a Letters Patent appeal formed part of the original statutory appeal.

Conclusion: A Letters Patent appeal did not lie, and the statutory finality under section 43 barred further appeal. The contention of the appellant failed.

Final Conclusion: The judgment affirmed that where the special rent control statute makes the appellate order final, the intra-court appeal under the Letters Patent is excluded and the High Court's single-judge decision attains finality within the statutory scheme.

Ratio Decidendi: When a statute confers an appeal to the High Court and expressly declares the appellate order final, the finality clause excludes a further Letters Patent appeal as well as collateral proceedings, unless the statute provides otherwise.

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