Intra-court appeal under Patna Letters Patent remains maintainable unless an express exclusion applies to the Single Judge's judgment.

Clause 10 of the Patna Letters Patent was construed as conferring a general right of intra-court appeal from a Single Judge's judgment, subject only to express exclusions such as second appeals, revisions, and specified supervisory or criminal orders. A Single Judge's appellate disposition did not, by itself, bar a Letters Patent Appeal unless the matter fell within one of those excluded categories. The Court distinguished authorities involving an express statutory bar on further appeal and held that no similar prohibition applied here, so the intra-court appeal was maintainable and had been wrongly dismissed.

---

---

Issues: Whether a Letters Patent Appeal under Clause 10 of the Patna Letters Patent lay against the judgment of a Single Judge rendered in the appellate jurisdiction.

Analysis: Clause 10 of the Patna Letters Patent was construed as creating a general right of intra-court appeal from a judgment of one Judge, while excluding specified categories, namely judgments passed in second appeal, orders made in revisional jurisdiction, and certain orders made under supervisory or criminal jurisdiction. The appellate bar was understood to operate where the Single Judge's decision was itself in a second appeal from a decree or order made in first appellate jurisdiction. The Court distinguished the present matter from cases where a separate statutory provision expressly barred a further appeal, and held that the earlier authority relied upon by the respondents did not control the present case because no similar statutory prohibition applied.

Conclusion: The Letters Patent Appeal was maintainable and the High Court was wrong in dismissing it as not maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded, the order of the High Court was set aside, and the intra-court appeal was restored for decision on merits.

Ratio Decidendi: An intra-court appeal under Clause 10 of the Patna Letters Patent lies from a Single Judge's judgment unless the case falls within an express exclusion, and a mere appellate disposition by the Single Judge does not by itself bar the appeal.

---