Pecuniary jurisdiction of Appellate Court

Appeal of appellant against order dismissing their application to be impleaded as defendants, was returned on the ground that the Appellate Court did not have pecuniary jurisdiction to hear the appeal

Validity

Bare reading of plaint depicted that value for the purposes of court-fee and jurisdiction had been given as Rupees 1000 and for determining pecuniary jurisdiction of the court, only valuation clause of plaint had to be considered and forum of appeal was not to be determined on basis of valuation ascertained by Trial Court, both for the purposes of jurisdiction and payment of court-fee

Appellate Court was, in the present case, vested with the power of entertaining the appeal and had erroneously returned the same

High Court set aside impugned order of Appellate Court and remanded the case to Appellate Court.

Appeal of plaintiff against order of Trial Court was dismissed on the ground that the Appellate Court did not have pecuniary jurisdiction to hear the appeal

Contention of plaintiff was that by virtue of amendments in the West Pakistan Civil Courts Ordinance, 1962 by Punjab Civil Courts Ordinance (Amendment) Act, 1986 and Punjab Civil Courts (Amendment) Ordinance, 2002 ; the jurisdiction of Appellate Court had been enhanced to Rupees 25,00,000 and accordingly the Appellate Court be ordered to decide the appeal on merits

Validity

Valuation for the purposes of pecuniary jurisdiction of Appellate Court had been enhanced from Rupees 200,000 to Rupees 25,00,000 by virtue of Punjab Civil Courts (Amendment) Ordinance, 2002, and as the valuation of the Appellate Court had been enhanced to Rupees 25,00,000 and as matter of amendment of the law with respect to the pecuniary jurisdiction of the civil courts was a procedural matter and the amendment would take retrospective effect, therefore, the judgment of the Appellate Court was set aside, and the Appellate Court was directed to decide the appeal filed by the plaintiff in accordance with law and on merits

Revision was accepted, accordingly.