Mahabir Prasad Singh vs Anup Narain Singh

This is an application for leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council and the only question which arises is one as to the value, the decree appealed from being a decree of reversal. It appears that in the plaint the value is stated to be Rs. 9,100. That of course was the plaintiff''s valuation. The defendant has put in an affidavit which shows that upon an annual income of Rs. 765, which is the income of this property, taking it at 20 years'' purchase, the value would be Rs. 15,300. That obviously is not the right method of calculation, because we ought to take the net income and that would appear after deducting the Government revenue and other outgoings to be something over Rs. 400. By the same process of calculation the sum would not in that case amount to over Rs. 10,000. But it is said that it has been the practice in the Calcutta High Court to add to the actual value of the land in such cases where mesne profits are claimed the amount of mesne profits up to the date of the decree of the Appellate Court. A number of cases have been decided by the High Court of Calcutta in which this practice has been followed and if that is done in the present case, the value will clearly be over Rs. 10,000. It is quite true that the High Court of Madras has adopted a different rule but as this Court exercises jurisdiction over a province which until recently was under the jurisdiction of the High Court of Calcutta, in matters of settled practice it has been our rule to follow the Calcutta High Court. We see no reason in the present case to depart from the rule of the Calcutta High Court. We, therefore, think that a certificate should be granted in this case to the effect that the case complies with the provisions of Section 110 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The costs of this application will be costs in the cause.