Saving clauses preserve civil court jurisdiction over pending land rights suits despite a later widening of the statutory bar.

Saving clauses in the 1956 and 1958 amendments to Section 331 of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act were treated as part of the principal Act and as exceptions to the civil court bar. The 1961 amendment widened the jurisdictional exclusion, but it did not displace a simple declaratory suit for sirdari rights that had been instituted in 1953 and was already pending in civil court. The civil court therefore retained jurisdiction to hear and decide the suit, because the saving provisions protected pending proceedings from the amended bar.

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Issues: Whether the amendment made in Section 331 of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act by the U. P. Land Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 1961 took away the jurisdiction of the civil court to try a suit for declaration of sirdari rights instituted in 1953 and pending when the amendment came into force.

Analysis: Section 331(1), as originally enacted and as amended in 1956, excluded the civil court from cognizance of suits listed in Schedule II, but the 1956 Amendment Act introduced a saving clause providing that proceedings instituted before commencement of the Act would continue to be heard and decided by the court where they were pending. A similar saving clause was introduced by the 1958 Amendment Act. Those saving provisions, though contained in amending Acts, were treated as part of the principal Act and operated as exceptions to the jurisdictional bar in Section 331(1). The 1961 amendment widened the jurisdictional bar, but it did not affect a simple declaratory suit already pending in the civil court, and in any event it could not override the saving provisions protecting pending proceedings.

Conclusion: The civil court retained jurisdiction to hear and decide the suit, and the answer to the referred question was in the negative.

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