Letters Patent Appeal remains maintainable where procedural law expressly saves special appellate rights.

Section 104(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure does not bar a Letters Patent Appeal where Section 104(1) expressly saves appeals provided by any other law. A harmonious reading of Sections 104 and 4 shows that a special appellate right is not displaced by general exclusionary language unless the statute clearly says so. The later insertion of Section 100A, which expressly excludes further appeals, confirms that a Letters Patent Appeal is barred only when the legislature uses specific words to that effect. The maintainability of the intra-court appeal was therefore upheld.

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Issues: Whether Section 104(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 bars a Letters Patent Appeal against an appellate order of a Single Judge of the High Court, and whether Clause 15 of the Letters Patent survives as a saved right of appeal under Section 104(1).

Analysis: Section 104(1) expressly preserves appeals provided by any other law for the time being in force, which includes a Letters Patent Appeal. Section 104(2) is a finality clause directed at appeals within Section 104 and cannot be read so as to negate the saving contained in sub-section (1). A harmonious reading of Section 104 and Section 4 of the Code shows that a special law conferring appellate jurisdiction is not taken away by general words of exclusion unless there is an express provision to that effect. The later insertion of Section 100A, which expressly excludes further appeals, reinforces that where the legislature intended to bar a Letters Patent Appeal it did so specifically. The earlier contrary view was rejected, and the maintainability of the intra-court appeal was upheld.

Conclusion: Section 104(2) does not bar a Letters Patent Appeal saved by Section 104(1), and the appeal under Clause 15 was maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The impugned judgment was unsustainable because the intra-court appeal lay under the Letters Patent, and the matter had to be decided on merits by the High Court.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory finality clause in procedural law does not exclude a Letters Patent Appeal where the special appellate right is expressly saved by the statute or is not expressly taken away.

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