Report No. 17

9. "District Court".-

The Act uses the expression "principal civil court of original jurisdiction" to denote the district court (outside presidency-towns). In the Report on Judicial Administration1 the Law Commission opined that there should be devoliition of some of the functions of the district court on subordinate courts to relieve the congestion of the work in the district courts. We think that the State Governments should be empowered to authorise subordinate courts to exercise the powers under the Act. A definition, therefore, of district court to bring out these ideas may be included. Consequential changes in the provisions of the Act may be made.

So far as presidency-towns are concerned, we were, at one stage, of the view that the City Civil Court should be treated as the district court for the purposes of the Act. From the comment received from the High Court of Calcutta, however, it appears that in Calcutta, the City Civil Court Act, 1953, (West Bengal Act, 21 of 1953), section 5(4) read with the Schedule, expressly excludes the jurisdiction of the City Civil Court in suits and proceedings relating to or arising out of trusts or endowments. In view of this, we have not mentioned the City Civil Court in the proposed definition. It will be for the State Governments to deal with the matter by notification, if they want to transfer the jurisdiction to the City Civil Court.

1. 14th Report, Vol. I, para. 10.