High Court
Jurisdiction—Application for amendment of plaint—Question as to whether the High Court can decide plaintiffs’ application for amendment, which seeks enhancement of valuation of suit to rupees hundred crores, after the suit stood transferred to City Civil Court under Section 4A of the Bombay City Civil Court Act (As amended by Act of 2023)—After considering the express language employed in Section 4A of the amended Bombay City Civil Court Act, the present suit stood transferred to the City Civil Court and the High Court has lost jurisdiction over it—Once the High Court has lost jurisdiction in the suit, propriety requires that all applications filed in the suit are decided by the court to which the suit stands transferred—Entertainment of any application in a suit, which is transferred out of jurisdiction of a court, is neither permissible nor desirable—Application for amendment of plaint filed by plaintiffs cannot be decided by High Court and that it needs to be decided by the City Civil Court, to which the suit has already been transferred. [Bombay City Civil Court Act, 1948, Section 4A as amended by Act of 2023]
Held : Pecuniary jurisdiction of subordinate courts are altered from time to time. Permitting one class or sub-class of applications to be entertained by courts even after loss of pecuniary jurisdiction would create confusion and chaos as well as result in misuse of such liberties by usurping jurisdictions by Courts who have already lost jurisdiction over particular category of suits.
[Paras 44 to 47]