TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1988 (2) TMI 464
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....n Pillai, [1987] 1 SCC 133: AIR 1987 SC 203, the appeals have been listed for consideration by a Bench of three Judges of the very same question in order to see whether there is any conflict between the views taken in Aundal Ammal's case (supra) and a later decision of this Court in Shyamaraju Hedge v. G. Venkatesha Bhat & Ors., [1987] 3 J.T. 663 and whether the view taken in the earlier case requires reconsideration. Even at the threshold of the judgment it has to be mentioned that Aundal Ammal's case arose under the Kerala Act whereas Shyamaraju Hedge's case (supra) pertained to the Karnataka Rent Control Act. Since there are essential differences between the two Acts, it is necessary to set out the relevant provisions of the two Acts and the circumstances in which the decision pertaining to each Act came to be rendered by this Court. As per section 20(5) of the Kerala Act "a Rent Control Court" means a Court constituted under Section 3. Under Section 3(1) "the Government may, by Notification in the Gazette appoint a person who is or is qualified to be appointed, a Munsif to be the Rent Control Court for such local areas as may be specified therein." Section 11 ....
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....ion 20(1) of the Kerala Act functions as a Court and not as a persona designata, the ordinary incidence of the procedure of that Court including any right of appeal or revision will be inhered to the decision rendered by the District Court. In that view of the matter the Full Bench held that a decision of a District Court under Section 20 of the Kerala Act is undoubtedly amenable to the revisional jurisdiction of the High Court especially when there is no provision in the Act providing for an appeal against an order of the District Court under Section 20 or in the alternative any express provision declaring the finality of the said order. The decision of the Full Bench held the field for a number of years in the State of Kerala and in all subsequent cases where the competence of the High Court to entertain a revision under Section 115 C.P.C. against an order of a District Court passed under Section 20(1) of the Kerala Act was challenged the contention was repelled by reference to the judgment of the Full Bench. One such case in point is Balagangadhara Menon v. T.V. Peter, [1984]KLT 845. The question decided by the Full Bench, however, came to be raised before this Court, in Aund....
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....ring both the questions in the negative, it was held in so far as question no. 1 is concerned, as follows: "........ In determining whether the Legislature intended a further revision petition to the High Court, regard must be had to the principle that the construction given to a statute should be such as would advance the object of the legislation and suppress the mischief sought to be cured by it. It seems to us that to recognise a revisional power in the High Court over a revisional order passed by the District Judge would plainly defeat the object of the legislative scheme. The intent behind the bifurcation of jurisdiction- to reduce the number of revision petitions filed in the High Court-would be frustrated. The scheme would, in large measure, lose its meaning. If a revision petition is permitted to the High Court against the revisional order of the District Court arising out of a suit of a value less than Rs. 20,000, a fundamental contradiction would be allowed to invade and destroy the division of revisional power between the High Court and the District Court, for the High Court would then enjoy jurisdictional power in respect of an order arising out of a suit of a valua....
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....d to the District Judge. It must be remembered that the legislative intention behind the amendment was to relieve the High Court of the burden of exercising revisional jurisdiction in respect of cases decided under the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act. We are of firm opinion that the central principle continues to hold, notwithstanding the amendment effected in s. 25, that the hierarchy of remedies enacted in the Provincial Small Cause Court Act represents a complete and final order of remedies, and it is not possible to proceed outside the Act to avail of a superior remedy provided by another statute." Taking the same view of the Kerala Act, which is also a selfcontained Act it was held in Aundal Ammal's case (supra) that "the Full Bench of the Kerala High Court was in error and the High Court in the instant case had no jurisdiction to interfere in this matter under Section 115 CPC." Coming now to the Karnataka Act and the decisions of the High Court and of this Court pertaining to Section 50 read with Section 48(6) of the said Act, it is first necessary to refer to the relevant provisions of the Act as they stood before and after the amendments effected by the Amendmen....
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....hall late authority under this Act or ofnot be liable to be called in questio n the High Court under section 50,in any court of law whether in a be final and shall not be liable tosuit or other proceeding or by way be called in question in any courtof appeal or revision. of law whether in a suit or other proceedings or by way of appeal or revision. 50. Revision by the High Court50. Revision. 1. The High Court may, at any(1).The High Court may,at any time, call for and examine-time,call for examine any order passed or proceeding taken by the (i) the records relating to anycourt of Civil Judge under this Act decision given or proceedingsor any order passed by the Con- taken by the District Judge.troller under sections 14,15 16,or 17 for the purpose of satisfying itself (ii) any order passed or proceed-as to the legality or correctness of ing taken by the Court under thissuch order or proceeding and may Act or any order passed by thepass such order in reference Controller under section 14,thereto as it thinks fit. section 15 or section 16. for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the legality or correctness of such decision, order or proceeding and may pass such order....
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.... of District Munsifs acting as Rent Controllers a right of appeal to the District Judge and a further revision to the High Court has been taken away and instead only a right of revision to the District Court is provided. In so far as the cases disposed of by the Civil Judges in the city of Bangalore are concerned, a right of revision is provided to the High Court. Notwithstanding the changes effected, Section 48(6) inter alia provided that an order of the Court or the Controller shall, subject to the decision of the District Judge or the High Court under Section 50 be final and shall not be liable to be called in question in any court of law, whether in a suit or other proceeding or by way of appeal or revision. In the background of the changes made by the legislature, a Full Bench of the Karnataka High Court went into the question in Krishnaji Venkatesh Shirodkar v. Gurupad Shivram Kavalekar & Others, ILR 1978 Karnataka 1585 whether by reason of Section 48(6) a further revision against a revisional order passed by the District Judge under Section 50(2) of the Karnataka Act would lie or not to the High Court under Section 115 of C.P.C. Venkataramiah, J. (as he then was), who spo....
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.... in greater detail and clarity. Under the Kerala Act, against an order passed by a Rent Control Court presided over by a District Munsif, the aggrieved party is conferred a right of appeal under Section 18. The Appellate Authority has to be a judicial officer not below the rank of a Subordinate Judge. The Appellate Authority has been conferred powers co-extensive with those of the Rent Control Court but having over-riding effect. Having these factors in mind, the Legislature has declared that in so far as an order of a Rent Control Court is concerned it shall be final subject only to any modification or revision by an Appellate Authority; and in so far as an Appellate Authority is concerned, its decision shall be final and shall not be liable to be called in question in any Court of law except as provided in section 20. As regards Section 20, a division of the powers of revision exercisable thereunder has been made between the High Court and the District Court. In all those cases where a revision is preferred against a decision of an Appellate Authority of the rank of a Subordinate Judge under Section 18, the District Judge has been constituted the revisional authority. It is only ....
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....e Section does not specifically say so, then it will follow that a revisional order passed by the High Court under Section 20(1) also will not have finality. Surely it cannot be contended by anyone that an order passed by a High Court in exercise of its powers of revision under Section 20(1) can be subjected to further revision because Section 20(1) has not expressly conferred finality to an order passed under that Section. Secondly, the terms of Section 20(1) have to be read in conjunction with Section 18(5). Section 18(5), as already seen, declares that an order of a Rent Control Court shall be final subject to the decision of the Appellate Authority and an order of an Appellate Authority shall be final and shall not be liable to be called in question in any court of law except as provided for in Section 20. When the Legislature has declared that even an order of the Rent Control Court and the decision of the Appellate Authority shall be final at their respective states unless the order is modified by the Appellate Authority or the Revisional Authority as the case may be, there is no necessity for the legislature to declare once over again that an order passed in revision under S....
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....l at length about the decision in Shyamaraju's case restoring the ratio in Krishnaji's case and disapproving the decision in Yaragatti's case. Even so we cannot but refer to the fact that in the Karnataka Act the right of appeal has been completely taken away and the entire proceedings are sought to be limited to a two tier system viz. the Rent Control Court and the Revisional Court, whereas under the Kerala Act there is a three tier system viz. the Rent Control Court, the Appellate Court and the Revisional Court. Though Section 48(6) of the Karnataka Act (as amended) also speaks of the finality of the order of the Rent Control Court, subject to the decision of the Revisional Court under Section 50 in more or less the same terms as in Section 18(5) of the Kerala Act, the force underlying the words "shall be final and shall not be liable to be called in question" etc. has to be reckoned at a lesser degree than the terms in the Kerala Act because the words of finality in the two Acts under the relevant provisions present distinctly different perspections. It is in that situation it was found in Shyamaraju's case that the relevant provisions of the Karnataka Act warran....
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.....R. 79, the members of the Court, having concluded that a decision on a question of rating pronounced some forty years previously by a Divisional Court was plainly wrong, overruled it accordingly, although the earlier decision had, without doubt, been frequently acted on in rating matters in the meantime, and although no judicial doubt had previously been cast on its correctness. These decisions have been referred to and followed in Brownsee Haven Properties Ltd. v. Poole Corporation, All E.R. 1958 1205. On similar lines this Court deemed it necessary to overrule the ratio in Vareed v. Mary, (supra) as the decision suffered from misconstruction of the relevant Sections in the Act and the weakness in the reasoning became manifest in the light of the subsequent decision of this Court such as in Vishesh Kumar (supra). In the light of our conclusion all the appeals must succeed in so far as the challenge to the right of the High Court to entertain revision petitions under Section 115 C.P.C. is concerned. In Civil Appeal Nos. 626 of 1981 and 624 of 1985, the High Court allowed the revision petition under Section 115 C.P.C. and ordered the eviction of the tenant. In Civil Appeal No. 2....
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....ments in these cases, a similar question might well arise under the corresponding enactments of some other States as well. It is in view of this importance of the question raised that I have considered it necessary to state my views in a separate order. 2. The Kerala and Karnataka Rent Control Acts vest a power of revision in the District Judge against certain orders. The question in these matters is whether the jurisdiction of the High Court under section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure (C.P.C.) can be invoked to seek a further revision of the revisional order passed by the District Judge. This question has been answered in the negative in Aundal Ammal v. Sadasivan Pillai, [1987] 3 SCC 83 (a decision under the Kerala Act) but in the affirmative in Shyamaraju Hegde v. Venkatesha Bhat, [1987] 3 J.T. 663 (a decision under the Karnataka Act) and hence this reference to a larger Bench. My learned brothers are of the view that there is no conflict between the above two decisions as the two enactments are not in pari materia and that, so far as the Kerala Act is concerned, Aundal Ammal should be followed. With respect, I am unable to agree. 3. Normally, a revision lies to the Hi....
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....shall not be called into question in any court of law except as provided in section 20 but the language of section 48(5) of the Karnataka Act is even stronger. It provides that the order of the Court or the Rent Controller shall (subject to the decision in appeal or of the District Judge or the High Court in revision under section 50) be final and "shall not be liable to be called into question in any court of law whether in a suit or other proceeding or by way of appeal or revision." If the much wider and more emphatic language of the Karnataka Act does not exclude the jurisdiction of the High Court under S. 115, as has been held in the two cases referred to above, it is difficult to see the justification for reading any such exclusion into the Kerala Act. 5. This poses then the question of a choice between the two views of this court: the one in Shyamaraju and the one in Aundal Ammal. As has already been pointed out, Shyamaraju follows the earlier decisions of this Court in Chhagan Lal and Krishnadas Bhatija. The only other decision of this Court, which has relevance in the present context, is Vihesh Kumar v. Shanti Prasad, [1980] 3 SCR 32 which has been relied upon in Aundal ....
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....constituted as the appellate authorities under the Act, the appellate authority need not necessarily be a regular civil court and, but for such a specific statutory provision, there would be no remedy to a party aggrieved by an order of the appellate authority. Section 18(5) is a provision of a general nature intended to prevent the orders of the Rent Controller from being challenged in the courts. These provisions, in my opinion, do not and cannot preclude the applicability of s. 115 of the C.P.C. to an order passed by the District Court, not as a persona designata, but as a civil court of the land. In this view of the matter, sections 18 and 20 have a vital part to play but their effect is not to eliminate the revisional jurisdiction of the High Court under section 115. 8. One more circumstance which I think has a bearing on the interpretation to be placed on this procedural problem is this. In the State of Kerala, as early as in Vareed v. Mary, AIR 1969 Ker. 101, a view was taken that the High Court can entertain a second revision and, though Shri Potti suggested that this view has been often challenged, the above Full Bench decision hold the field till Aundal Ammal was decid....