Retrospective appellate right under a High Court Act applied to pending proceedings and supported a Full Bench appeal.

Section 2(b) of the United State of Gwalior, Indore and Malwa (Madhya-Bharat) High Court of Judicature Act, 1949 was held to extend the Act to proceedings pending or arising in the erstwhile State after its inclusion, and when read with section 25 it conferred a right of special appeal to the Full Bench. The statutory language was treated as sufficiently clear to apply that appellate right even though the Divisional Bench judgment had been delivered before commencement. The presumption against retrospectivity was rejected because the text itself gave retrospective effect, and the argument that the provision only enlarged jurisdiction was not accepted.

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Issues: Whether section 2(b) of the United State of Gwalior, Indore and Malwa (Madhya-Bharat) High Court of Judicature Act, VIII of 1949 applied section 25 of that Act to appeals arising out of proceedings pending or arising in the erstwhile State so as to confer a right of appeal to the Full Bench against a Divisional Bench judgment delivered before the Act came into force.

Analysis: Section 2(b) made the Act applicable not merely to proceedings pending on the date of inclusion of the State in the United State, but also to proceedings arising in the erstwhile State after that date. Read with section 25, which created a right of special appeal to the Full Bench, the language was held to be plain enough to apply that appellate right to the relevant proceedings even where the Divisional Bench judgment had been pronounced before the Act commenced. The presumption against retrospectivity was held inapplicable because the statutory language itself gave retrospective effect. The contention that section 2(b) only enlarged jurisdiction, or that the old Ordinance controlled the meaning of the Act, was rejected.

Conclusion: The appeal to the Full Bench was competent under section 25 as applied by section 2(b), and the appellant succeeded on this issue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where statutory language plainly applies a new appellate provision to pending or included proceedings, the provision operates retrospectively even though it affects vested rights and no separate words expressly mention retrospectivity.

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