Small causes suits and second appeals: statutory bar applies, and conversion into revision remains discretionary.

Section 102 of the Code of Civil Procedure bars a second appeal in a suit of the nature cognizable by a Court of Small Causes when the statutory value limit is not exceeded. Even where Section 9 of the U.P. Civil Laws Amendment Act, 1972 contemplated transfer of such pending suits to the Small Cause Court, the suit retained its character as a small causes suit. As a result, the second appeal was not maintainable. Conversion of the memorandum of appeal into a civil revision was treated as discretionary and was declined because the party had proceeded through trial in the regular court and had already obtained a full hearing on merits in the lower appellate court.

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Issues: Whether a second appeal lay against a decree in a suit which, after the U.P. Civil Laws Amendment Act, 1972 came into force, was of the nature cognizable by a Court of Small Causes, and whether the memorandum of appeal should be converted into a civil revision.

Analysis: Section 102 of the Code of Civil Procedure bars a second appeal in any suit of the nature cognizable by Courts of Small Causes where the value of the subject-matter does not exceed the statutory limit. Although Section 9 of the U.P. Civil Laws Amendment Act, 1972 contemplated transfer of pending suits of that nature to the Small Cause Court, the suit retained its character as a small causes suit. Since the present suit fell within that category, the statutory bar to a second appeal applied. The request to convert the appeal into a revision was treated as a matter of discretion and was declined because the defendant had proceeded with the trial before the regular court and had already had a full hearing on merits in the lower appellate court.

Conclusion: The second appeal was incompetent and the request for conversion into revision was rejected.

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