Report No. 44
20. Transitional provision.-
We now come to the provision to be made regarding matters pending at the date of commencement of the amendment or judgments pronounced before that date. This is important, because it is well-established that in the absence of an express provision on the subject, a provision relating to the right of appeal would not be retrospective. In a case1 decided in 1957, where the question arose whether the increased limit of Rs. 20,000 applied to a judgment passed after the commencement of the Constitution, but arising out of a suit instituted before such commencement, the Supreme Court held as follows:-
"The right of appeal is a vested right, and such a right to enter the superior court accrues to the litigant and exists as on and from the date the lis commences and, although it may be actually exercised when the adverse judgment is pronounced, such right is to be governed by the law prevailing at the date of the institution of the suit or proceeding, and not by the law that prevails at the date of its decision or at the date of the filing of the appeal."