May 18, 2019:
Supreme Court has held that no substantial question of law is required to maintain a second appeal in a civil case if the area is governed by the Punjab Courts Act.
A bench of Justice Kaul and Justice Banerjee has passed the order in the case titled as KIRODI (SINCE DECEASED) THROUGH vs RAM PARKASH on 10.05.2019.
We may bring to the notice of the readers that our website had some years ago published an article on the issue of second appeal arguing that in terms of Section 41 of Punjab Courts Act second appeal had to be dealt with instead of Section 100 CPC and therefore, appeal could be maintainable even beyond the substantial questions of law. Read that article here.
Coming presently to the order pronounced by the Supreme Court. It observed and held as "The effect of the judgment of the Constitution Bench is that insofar as the State of Punjab is concerned, a second appeal does not require formulation of a substantial question of law since the Punjab Act would be applicable for the State. Hence, Section 100 of the Code would not hold the field having supervening effect".
Pertinently, the Punjab Courts Act 1918 is equally applicable to Delhi and therefore, even in Delhi the second appeal has to be governed by Section 41 of the said Act and not by Section 100 of the CPC. As such, even in Delhi, a second appeal can be maintained beyond substantial question of law and can be filed on any of the grounds mentioned in Section 41 of the Act. For details, read the article aforesaid.
Read the order here:
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