Report No. 14
24. Courts of civil judges.-
We may next consider courts presided over by civil judges with jurisdiction to try regular and small cause suits valued upto Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 500 respectively. Some of the civil judges have been empowered to entertain appeals valued upto Rs. 2000. Further, section 22(1) of the Rajasthan Civil Courts Ordinance (VII of 1950) provides that a district judge may transfer to any civil judge under his administrative control any appeal pending before him against the decrees or orders of Munsifs. The following Table (Table No. 7) shows the original suits, small cause suits, civil regular and miscellaneous appeals instituted in and disposed of by the Courts of Civil Judges during the three years 1954-56 together with the total number of proceedings pending at the close of each year.
Table No. 7
No. of officers |
Civil Suits |
Small cause suits |
|||||||||
Year |
No of officers |
Pending at the beginning of the year |
Institutions |
Disposal |
Balance |
Pending at the beginning of the year |
Institutions |
Disposal |
Balance |
||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
1954 |
24 |
4733 |
5894 |
6291 |
2740 |
1596 |
1232 |
5973 |
5759 |
1412 |
34 |
1955 |
24 |
4336 |
6543 |
5971 |
3078 |
1830 |
1446 |
6005 |
5928 |
1445 |
78 |
1956 |
33 |
7320 |
8655 |
8077 |
4573 |
3335 |
3961 |
7713 |
5966 |
2878 |
830 |
Civil Appeals |
Civil Miscellaneous Appeals |
|||||||||
Pending at the beginning of the year |
Institutions |
Disposal |
Balance |
Pending at the beginning of the year |
Institutions |
Disposal |
Balance |
|||
1 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
1954 |
170 |
570 |
581 |
134 |
24 |
40 |
125 |
114 |
43 |
8 |
1955 |
159 |
488 |
433 |
111 |
103 |
51 |
121 |
106 |
60 |
6 |
1956 |
257 |
497 |
606 |
86 |
62 |
74 |
103 |
144 |
25 |
8 |
25. The number of officers remained constant during the two years 1954-55. This enables us to arrive at the annual average disposal of work by each civil judge as set down below:-
Table No. 8
Nature of proceedings |
Average available for disposal |
Average disposal |
Average pendency |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Civil Suits |
448 |
255.4 |
192.6 |
Small Cause |
305.3 |
264..3 |
61.8 |
26. Nearly seventy-five per cent. of the suits brought to trial before these courts are those for money or movable property and out of these roughly half relate to claims valued below Rs. 5,000. The nature of litigation in these courts cannot be said to be complicated. Nevertheless, the average duration of suits disposed of after contest was 421 and 398 days in 1954 and 1955 respectively. The number of the year old suits pending at the close of any one of the three years 1954-56 was roughly thirty-five per cent. of the total number of suits pending at the close of each of those years.
The number of a year old suits has steadily increased. No doubt, some of the civil judges disposed of civil appeals also. However, the nature of work in these courts is not such as is expected to be handled by officers of this cadre. As we have already suggested these officers should be invested with powers to try all original suits irrespective of valuation other than those exclusively triable by district judges. These judges may be invested with the powers of Assistant Sessions Judges and their small cause jurisdiction may be gradually raised to at least Rs. 1,000. This may involve an increase in their number but this will be partly offset by a reduction in the number of Civil and Sessions Judges.
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