: 1 : vss IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION MISCELLANEOUS CIVIL APPLICATION NO.166 OF 2009 Ramesh Ramchandra Kolte & Ors. ... Applicants V/s. Vijaysingh Namdev Patil & Ors. ... Respondents Mr.N.R. Kolte for Applicants Ms.Deepali Patil for Respondents CORAM: SMT.NISHITA MHATRE, J. DATED: MARCH 12, 2010 P.C.: 1. The miscellaneous civil application has been filed to transfer the review application No.12 of 2009 pending before the C.J.S.D., Kalyan to any other equivalent subordinate Court. 2. Section 24 of the Civil Procedure Code empowers the High Court or the District Court to transfer the matters either on its own motion or on an application made by the parties. Section 24 reads as follows: 24. General power of transfer and withdrawal. - (1) On the application of any of the parties and after notice to the parties and after hearing such of them as desired to be heard, or of its own motion, without such notice, the High Court or the District Court may at any stage- : 2 : (a) transfer any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending before it for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same, or (b) withdraw any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending in any Court subordinate to it, and- (i) try or dispose of the same; or (ii) transfer the same for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same; or (iii) retransfer the same for trial or disposal to the Court from which it was withdrawn. (2) Where any suit or proceeding has been transferred or withdrawn under sub-section (1), the Court which is thereafter to try or dispose of such suit or proceeding may, subject to any special directions in the case of any order of transfer, either retry it or proceed from the point at which it was transferred or withdrawn. (3) For the purposes of this section,- (a) Courts of Additional and Assistant Judges shall be deemed to be subordinate to the District Court; (b) "proceeding" includes a proceeding for the execution of a decree or order. (4) the Court trying any suit transferred or withdrawn under this section from a Court of Small Causes shall, for the purposes of such suit, be deemed to be a Court of Small Causes. (5) A suit or proceeding may be transferred under this section from a Court which has no jurisdiction to try it. Thus, u/s 24 (1)(b)(ii), the District Court can pass necessary orders for transferring matters which are pending before Courts subordinate to it to any other Court. 3. The learned advocate for the applicant submits that the District Court would have no jurisdiction to transfer the matter which is pending before the CJSD, Kalyan : 3 : as the valuation of the suit is approximately over Rs.3 lakhs. He submits that since the appellate authority is the High Court, it is only the High Court which would have jurisdiction to transfer such a suit. He places reliance on the judgment in the case of Raghunath Hanumant Mane vs. Sadashiv Damodar Datar, 1951 BCI 83 and Nirmal Quality Products v/s. M/s.Contey Industries and anr., 1995 (2) Bom.C.R. 540. He further submits that u/s 8 of the Bombay Court Fees Act, the valuation of the suit indicates that the suit is maintainable before a Civil Judge Senior Division and, therefore, it is only the High Court which would have the appellate jurisdiction over that Court. He submits that the transfer application can be made only to the Court which has appellate jurisdiction and not to any other Court. According to him, therefore, the present application has rightly been filed by him before the High Court. 4. In my opinion, this submission cannot be accepted. The only provision which permits such transfers is section 24 of the CPC. Any Suit, appeal or other proceeding pending before a trial Court or appellate Court in any subordinate Court can be transferred by the High Court or the District Court at any stage to another Court competent to try or dispose of the Suit. In the present case, the applicant has prayed that the review application No.2 of 2009 pending before the C.J.S.D., Kalyan should be transferred to any other “equivalent subordinate Civil Court, Senior Division at Kalyan” for hearing and final disposal. Thus, whether the transfer is sought u/s 24(1) (a) or 24(1)(b)(ii), an application for such transfer would lie before the District Court. It cannot be gainsaid that the Court of CJSD is subordinate to the District Court. In such circumstances, the District Court need not be the appellate Court as section 24 merely speaks about the transfer from a Court subordinate to the District Court. Hence, the District Court though may not be the Court of appeal would certainly be a : 4 : superior Court to the Court of Civil Judge, Senior Division and would therefore have jurisdiction to transfer the suit if it finds it necessary to do so. The judgments cited by the learned advocate for the applicant do not have any bearing on the present case. They merely speak about the jurisdiction of the appellate Court and have nothing to do with transfer of the proceedings. 5. Miscellaneous Civil Application is therefore rejected.