Order XIX - Appeals on Certificate by High Court : Supreme Court Rules 2013

What are the Appeals on Certificate by High Court? Order XIX of Supreme Court Rules 2013

Order XIX of Supreme Court Rules 2013 : "Appeals on Certificate by High Court"

1. Where a certificate of the nature referred to in clause (1) of article 132 or clause (1) of article 133 has been given under article 134A of the Constitution or a certificate has been given under article I35 of the Constitution or under any other provision of law the party concerned shall file a petition of appeal in the Court

2. Subject to the provisions of sections 4, 5 and 12 of the Limitation Act, 1963 (36 of 1963), the petition of appeal shall be presented within sixty days from the date of the grant of the certificate of fitness:

Provided that in computing the said period, the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the certificate and the order granting the said certificate, shall also be excluded.

3. (1) The petition shall recite succinctly and in chronological order with relevant dates, the principal steps in the proceedings leading up to the appeal from the commencement thereof till the grant of the certificate of leave to appeal to the Court, and shall state the grounds on which the judgment under appeal is assailed as well as the amount or value of the subject-matter of the suit in the Court of first instance and in the High Court, and the amount or value of the subject-matter in dispute before the Court with particulars showing how the said valuation has been arrived at Where the appeal is incapable of valuation, it shall be so stated.

(2) The petition shall be accompanied by a certified copy of

(i) judgment and decree or order appealed from;

(ii) certificate granted by the High Court; and

(iii) the order granting the said certificate.

In cases where according to the practice prevailing in the High Court, the decree or order is not required to be drawn up it shall be so stated upon affidavit. In appeals falling under any of the categories enumerated in rule 6, however, in addition to the documents mentioned above, a certified copy (or uncertified copy if such copy is affirmed to be true copy upon affidavit) of the judgment or order and also of the decree of the Court immediately below or such a copy of the order of the Tribunal, Government authority or person, as the case may be shall also be filed before the appeal is listed for hearing ex-parte. At least seven copies of the aforesaid documents shall be filed in the Registry.

(3) Where at any time between the grant by the High Court of the Certificate for leave to appeal to the Court and the filing of the petition of appeal, any party to the proceeding in the Court below dies, the petition of appeal may be filed by or against the legal representative, as the case may be, of the deceased party, provided that the petition is accompanied by a separate application, duly supported by an affidavit, praying for bringing on record such person as the legal representative of the deceased party and setting out the facts showing him to be the proper person to be entered on the record as such legal representative.

4. The Registrar, after satisfying himself that the petition of appeal is in order, shall endorse the date of presentation on the petition and register the same as an appeal in the Court.

5. Where a party desires to appeal on grounds which can be raised only with the leave of the Court, it shall lodge along with the petition of appeal a separate petition stating the grounds so proposed to be raised and praying for leave to appeal on those grounds.

6. Each of the following categories of appeals, on being registered, shall be put up for hearing ex-parte before the Court which may either dismiss it summarily or direct issue of notice to all necessary parties or may make such orders as the circumstances of the case may require, namely:-

(a) an appeal from any judgment, decree or final order of a High Court summarily dismissing the appeal or the matter, as the case may be before it;

(b) an appeal on a certificate granted by a High Court under article 134A of the Constitution being a certificate of the nature referred to in clause (1) of article 132 or clause (1) of article 133 of the Constitution or under any other provision of law if the High Court has not recorded the reasons or the grounds for granting the certificate.

Appearance by Respondent

7. As soon as the petition of appeal has been registered and in the case of categories of appeals falling under rule 6 as soon as notice is directed to be issued the Registrar of the Court shall-

(i) require the appellant to furnish as many copies of the petition of appeal as may be necessary for record and for service on the respondent; and

(ii) send to the Registrar of the Court appealed from a copy of the petition of appeal for record in that Court who shall serve upon the respondent or each of the respondents the notice of lodgment of appeal:

Provided that the Registrar of the Court may on an application made for the purpose, dispense with service of the petition of appeal on any respondent who did not appear in the proceedings in the Court appealed from or on his legal representative:

Provided however that no order dispensing with service of notice shall be made in respect of a respondent who is a minor or a lunatic:

Provided further that an order dispensing with service of notice shall not preclude any respondent or his legal representative from appearing to contest the appeal.

8. On receipt from the Court of the copy of the petition of appeal, the Registrar of the Court appealed from shall-

(i) cause notice of the lodgment of the petition of appeal to be served on the respondent personally or in such manner as the Court appealed from may by rules prescribe;

(ii) unless otherwise ordered by the Court transmit to the Court at the expense of the appellant the original record of the case, including the record of the Courts below:

Provided that where a transcript is to be prepared in accordance with the proviso to sub-rule (1) of rule II, no original record shall be transmitted until specifically requisitioned; and (iii) as soon as notice as aforesaid is served, to send a certificate as to the date or dates on which the said notice was served.

9. A respondent shall enter appearance in the Court within thirty days of the service on him of the notice of lodgment of the petition of appeal.

10. The respondent may within the time limited for his appearance deliver to Registrar of the Court and to the appellant a notice in writing consenting to the appeal, and the Court may thereupon make such order on the appeal as the justice of the case may require without requiring the attendance of the person so consenting.

Preparation of Record

11. (1) The record shall be printed in accordance with the rules contained in the First Schedule to these rules and unless otherwise ordered by the Court, it shall be printed under the supervision of the Registrar of the Court:

Provided that where the proceedings from which the appeal arises were had in courts below in a language other than English the Registrar of the Court appealed from shall within six months from the date of the service on the respondent of the notice of petition of appeal transmit to the Court in triplicate a transcript in English of the record proper of the appeal to be laid before the Court one copy of which shall be duly authenticated. The provisions contained in rules 12 to 17 shall apply to the preparation and transmission to the Court of the said transcript record:

Provided further that where the records are printed for the purpose of the appeal before the High Court and the said record be in English the High Court shall prepare 10 extra copies in addition to the number of copies required by the High Court for use in the Court.

(2) Upon receipt from the Court appealed from of the English transcript of the record as aforesaid, the Registrar of the Court shall proceed to cause an estimate of the Costs of preparing the printed copies of the records to be made and served on the appellant in accordance with the provisions contained in rule 16 and with all convenient speed arrange for the preparation thereof.

(3) Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, at least twenty copies of the record shall be prepared.

12. (1) As soon as the original record of the case is received in the Court, the Registrar shall give notice to the parties who have entered appearance of the arrival of the original record and the parties shall thereafter be entitled to inspect the record and to extract all necessary particulars therefrom.

(2) The appellant shall within four weeks of the service upon him of the notice referred 10 in sub-rule (1) file a list of the documents which he proposes to include in the paper book a copy whereof shall be served on the respondent. The respondent may within three weeks of the service on him of the said list file a list of such additional documents as he considers necessary for the determination of the appeal.

13. After the expiry of the time fixed for the filing of the additional list by the respondent the Registrar shall fix a day for the settlement of list of documents to be included in the appeal record and shall give notice thereof to the parties who have entered appearance. In settling the lists the Registrar as well as the parties concerned shall endeavour to exclude from the record all documents that are not relevant to the subject matter of the appeal and generally to reduce the bulk of the record as far as practicable.

14. Where the respondent objects to the inclusion of a document on the ground that it is not necessary or is irrelevant and the appellant nevertheless insists upon its inclusion, the record as finally printed shall, with a view to subsequent adjustment of cost of and incidental to the printing of the said document indicate in the index of papers or otherwise the fact that the respondent has objected to the inclusion of the document and that it has been included at the instance of the appellant.

15. Where the appellant objects to the inclusion of a document on the ground that it is not necessary or is irrelevant and the respondent nevertheless insists upon its inclusion. the Registrar. if he is of opinion that the document is not relevant. may direct that the said document be printed separately at the expense of the respondent and require the respondent to deposit "within such time as he may prescribe, the necessary charges therefor and the question of the costs thereof shall be dealt with by the Court at the time of the determination of the appeal.

16. As soon as the index of the records is settled the Registrar concerned shall cause an estimate of the costs of the preparation of the record to be prepared and served on the appellant and require him to deposit within thirty days of such service the said amount.

The appellant may deposit the said amount in lump sum or in such installments as the Registrar may prescribe.

17. Where the record has been printed for the purpose of the appeal before the High Court and sufficient number of copies (if it is in English) are available, no fresh printing of the record shall be necessary except of such additional papers as may be required.

18. Where an appeal paper book is likely to consist of two hundred or less number of pages, the Registrar may, instead of having it printed, have the record photocopied under his supervision.

19. If at any time during the preparation of the record the amount deposited is found insufficient, the Registrar shall call upon the appellant to deposit such further sum as may be necessary within such further time as may be deemed fit but not exceeding twenty eight days in the aggregate.

20. Where the appellant fails to make the required deposit, the preparation of the records shall be suspended and the Registrar concerned shall not proceed with the preparation thereof without an order in this behalf of the Court and where the record is under preparation in the Court appealed from, of the Court appealed from.

21. When the record has been made ready the Registrar shall certify the same and give notice to the parties of the certification of the record and append to the record a certificate showing the amount of expenses incurred by the party concerned for the preparation of the record.

22. Each party who has entered appearance shall be entitled to three copies of the record for his own use.

23. Subject to any special direction from the Court to the contrary, the costs of, and incidental to, the printing of the record shall form part of the costs of the appeal, but the costs of, and incidental to, the printing of any document objected to by one party in accordance with rule 15 or rule 16, shall, if such document is found, on taxation of costs, to be unnecessary or irrelevant, be disallowed to, or borne by the party insisting on including the same in the record.

24. Where the record is directed to be prepared under the supervision of the Registrar of the Court appealed from, the provisions contained in rules 12 to 22 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the preparation thereof.

Special Case

25. Where the decision of the appeal is likely to turn exclusively on a question of law, any party, with the sanction of the Registrar of the Court, may submit such question of law in the form of a special case, and the Registrar may call the parties before him, and having heard them and examined the record, may report to the Court as to the nature of the proceedings and the record that may be necessary for the discussion of the same.

Upon perusing the said report, the Court may give such directions as to the preparation of the record and hearing of the appeal, including directions regarding the time within which or otherwise, the parties shall lodge their respective statements of case:

Provided that nothing herein contained shall in any way prevent this Court from ordering the full discussion of the whole case if the Court shall so think fit.

Withdrawal of Appeal

26. Where at any stage prior to the hearing of the appeal an appellant desires to withdraw his appeal, he shall present a petition to that effect to the Court. At the hearing of any such petition a respondent who has entered appearance may apply to the Court for his costs.

Non Prosecution of Appeals - Change of Parties

27. If an appellant fails to take any steps in the appeal within the time fixed for the same under these rules, or if no time is specified, it appears to the Registrar of the Court that he is not prosecuting the appeal with due diligence, the Registrar shall call upon him to explain his default and, if no Explanation is offered, or if the Explanation offered appears to the Registrar to be insufficient, the Registrar may issue a summons calling upon him to show cause before the Court why the appeal should not be dismissed for non prosecution.

28. The Registrar shall send a copy of the summons mentioned in the last specified rule to every respondent who has entered appearance. The Court may, after hearing the parties, dismiss the appeal for non-prosecution or
give such other directions thereon as the justice of the case may require.

29. Where at any time between the filing of the petition of appeal and the hearing of the appeal the record becomes defective by reason of the death or change of status of a party to the appeal, or for any other reason, an application shall be made to the Court, stating who is the proper person to be substituted or entered on the record in place of, or in addition to the party on record.

30. Upon the tiling of such an application the Registrar of the Court shall, after notice to the parties concerned, determine who in his opinion is the proper person to be substituted or entered on the record in place of, or in addition to the party on record, and the name of such person shall thereupon be substituted or entered on the record:

Provided that no such order of substitution or revivor shall be made by the Registrar-

(i) where a question arises as to whether any person is or is not the legal
representative of the deceased party, or

(ii) where a question of setting aside the abatement of the cause is involved;

and in such a case he shall place the matter before the Court for orders:

Provided further that where during the course of the proceedings it appears to the Registrar that it would be convenient for the enquiry that investigation in regard to the person who is to be substituted on record, be made by the Court appealed from or a Court subordinate thereto, the Registrar may place the matter before the Judge in Chambers and the Judge in Chambers may thereupon make an order directing to the Court appealed from to investigate into the matter either itself or cause an enquiry to be made by a Court subordinate to it, after notice to the parties, and submit its report thereon to this Court within such lime as may be fixed by the order.

On receipt of the report from the Court below the matter shall be posted before the Judge in Chambers again for appropriate order.

3. Save as aforesaid the provision of Order XXII of the Code relating to abatement shall apply mutatis Mutandis to appeals and proceedings before the Court.

32. (1) Withing forty-five days of the service on him of the notice of authentication of the record, the appellant shall lodge in the Court the statement of his case and serve a copy thereof on the respondent. The respondent shall lodge statement of case within thirty-five days thereafter. In appeals where printing of record is dispensed with, the appellant shall file statement of case within 45 days from the date of order dispensing with the printing of appeal record or from the expiry of period granted by the Court for filing additional papers or record, whichever is later and the respondent shall file statement of case within 35 days either from the date on which the period of 30 days from the date of service of notice of lodgment of petition of appeal expires or from the date of service of statement of ease of the appellant, whichever is later.

(2) If the appellant does not file a statement of case within the time, as provided for in sub rule (1), it shall be presumed that the appellant has adopted the list of dates/synopsis containing chronology of events as filed al the time of presentation of petition for seeking special leave to appeal (SLP)/ Appeal, as statement of case, and does not desire to file any further statement of case:

Provided that where a respondent, who has entered appearance does not file a statement of case within the time, as provided in sub-rule (1) it shall be presumed that the respondent does not desire to lodge statement of case in the appeal.

33. (1) The statement of a case shall consist of two parts as follows;

Part I shall consist concise statement of the facts of the case in proper sequence. A list of the dates of the relevant events leading up and concerning the litigation in chronological order and pedigree tables, wherever necessary, shall be given al the end of the part.

Part II shall set out the contentions of facts and law sought to be urged in support of the claim of the party lodging the statement of case and the authorities in support thereof. Where authorities are cited, reference shall
be given to the Official Reports, if available, where text books are cited, the reference shall if possible, be to the latest available editions. Where a statute, regulation, rule, ordinance or bye law is cited or relied on, so much thereof as may be necessary to the decision of the case shall be set out. At the end of the part shall ordinarily be set out a table of cases cited.

(2) The statement of case shall consist of paragraphs numbered consecutively. Reference shall be given by page and line to the relevant portions of the record in the margin and care shall be taken to avoid, as far as possible, the re-producing in the statement of case of long extracts from the Record. The statement of case shall not travel beyond the limits of the certificate or the special leave, as the case may be, and of such additional grounds, if any, as the Court may allow to be urged on application made for the purpose. The Taxing Officer in taxing the costs of the appeal shall, either of his own motion, or at the instance of the opposite party, enquire into any unnecessary prolixity in the case, and shall disallow the costs occasioned thereby.

34. Two or more respondents may, al their own risk of costs, lodge separate statement of cases in the same appeal.

35. A respondent who has not entered appearance shall not be entitled to receive any notice relating to the appeal from the Registrar of the Court, nor allowed to lodge a statement of case in the appeal.

36. The appeal shall be set down for hearing one month after the expiry of the time prescribed for lodging the statement of case by the respondent.

37. If the printing of record has not been dispensed with, the appellant shall, within two weeks of the receipt of the notice setting down the appeal for bearing, attend at the Registry and obtain eight copies of the record and the statements of case to be bound in cloth or in one-fourth leather with paper sides, and six leaves of blank paper shall be kept for the use of the Court. The front cover shall bear a label stating the title and Supreme Court number of the appeal, the contents of the volume and the name and address of the advocates-on-record.

The several documents indicated by inducts shall be arranged in the following order:-

(1) Appellant's Statement of Case;

(2) Respondent's Statement of Case;

(3) Record (if in more than one part; showing the separate Parts by inducts, all Parts being paged at the top of the page);

(4) Supplemental Record (if any) and the short title and Supreme Court number of appeal shall also be shown on the back.

38. The appellant shall lodge the bound copies not less than ten clear days before the date fixed for the hearing of the Appeal.

39. The provisions of rule 11 of Order XVIII of the rules shall, so far as may be, apply to the parties in matters to which this Order applies.

40. Except where' specifically otherwise provided in these Rules, the provisions of this Order with necessary modifications and adaptations, shall apply to Statutory Appeals tiled under any enabling Act or provision.