Report No. 14

Table No. 2

Statement Showing Detail of The Proceedings Pending on.-5-57 in The High Court If Madras According to The Year of Institutions of The Pending Proceedings

Year of Institutions
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Nature of Proceeding	1939	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956
First Appeals	..	....	..	..	..	1	1	5	10	59	401	371	497	703
Original Side Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	12	63	52	52	65
City Civil Court Appeals		..	..	..	..	..	2R	..	..	4	4	12	35	58
Letters Patent Appeals.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	5	25	22	54
Referred Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	5	29	59	84	132
Second Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	2(1R)	26	33	43(1R)	281	837	944(2R)
Civil Miscellaneous Appeal	..	..	..	..	...	....	..	..	..	6	13	28	93	298
Civil Miscellaneous Second Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	..	4	3(1R)	53	79
Civil Revision Petitions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	3	1	8	19	62	312	955
Tax Revisions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..			5	21	28	77
Writ Petitions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	3	54	4	22	92	825
Civil Suits	2	1	..	1	4	6	12	14	12	10	21	45	69	73

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Matrimonial Suits	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	3	7
Testamentary Suits	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	6	4	8
Original Petitions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	2	18	125
Criminal Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	3	316
Criminal Revision Cases	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	7	208
Confirmation Cases	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	40
Reference Section 307, Cr. P.C.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	Under ..
Other reference	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..
Miscellaneous	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..
Application for leave to appeal Supreme Court	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	64
Review Application	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	8	8	83

Table No. 3

S. No.	Nature of Proceedings		Nature of Judges engaged
		1954	1955	1956
	1	2	3	4
1.	First Appeal and City civil Court Appeals	One Bench for the year and one single Judge for the year.	One Bench for 8 months and one single Judge for 8 months.	One Bench for 7 Months and one single judge for 5 months
2.	Second Appeals,.	One Judge for the year and one Judge for 3 months	One judge for one year and another Judge for 2 months	One Judge for one year.
3.	Letters Patent Appeals, Original Side Appeals and Writ Appeals.	One Bench for 7 months	One Bench for 7 months.	One Bench for 7 months.
4.	Writ and Tax Revision Cases & Referred Cases (Bench)	One Bench for 4 months.	One Bench for 3 months.	One Bench for 4 months.
5.	Writs ( Single Judge).	One Judge for the year.	One Judge for 7 months.	One Judge for 6 months.
6.	Appeal Against Orders and Appeals Against Appellate Orders.	One Bench for 2 months and one single Judge for 5 months.	One Bench for one month and one single Judge for 5 months.	One Judge for 6 months.
7.	Revisions.	One Judge for 8 months.	One Judge for 7 months.	One Judge for 6 months.
8.	Miscellaneous and Admission Work.	One Judge for the year.	One Judge for the year.	One Judge for 8 months.
9.	Original side Work.	Two Judges for the year.	One Judge for the year and one Judge for 4 months.	One Judge for the year.
10.	Session Work.	One Judge for 5 months.	One judge for 6 months.	Nil.
11.	Referred Trials and Bench Criminal Work.	One Bench for 4 months.	One Bench for 3 months.	One Bench for 3 months.
12.	Criminal Appeals and Criminal Revision Case (Single Judge).	One Judge for 4 months.	One Judge for 4 months.	One Judge for 4 months.

16. The accompanying Table (No. 3) shows the categories of proceedings for the disposal of which Benches had to be constituted and the periods for which those Benches worked. A judge of this High Court sitting singly has powers to dispose of first appeals valued upto Rs. 7500, second appeals irrespective of valuation, criminal appeals other than those involving sentences of death or transportation for life, all petitions under section 115, C.P.C. and other matters. It would be worth considering whether the pecuniary limit upto which a single judge can hear and dispose of first appeals from decrees can be raised to Rs. 15,000 and those from orders to Rs. 20.000. By enhancing the jurisdiction of a single judge to the aforementioned limits, we think, on an average about hundred judge-days can be saved every year.

The appellate jurisdiction of District Judges in this State has already been raised to Rs. 10,000 and appeals below that value are now filed only in the District Courts. Some relief can be given to the High Court by the transfer of pending appeals below this value. The accumulated first appeals which constitute the largest portion of the arrears in this court, will at the present rate of disposals require for their disposal at least two Benches sitting for this purpose throughout the year for two years.