Report No. 14

11. Jurisdiction of civil courts.-

The following Table shows at a glance the pecuniary jurisdiction of different classes of civil judicial officers in the Andhra and Telangana regions.-

Table No. 1

Region of the State	Class of officers	Civil		Small Cause	Appellate
		Ordinary	Special
1	2	3	4	5	6
Andhra	District and Additional District Judge.	Unlimited	Guardians and Wards Act, Indian Succession Act, Land Acquisition Act, Payment of Wages Act, etc.	--	Rs. 7,500
	Subordinate Judge*	Do.	Indian Succession Act, Land Acquisition Act, etc.	Rs. 2,000	Rs. 5,000
	Munsif	Rs. 5,000	Indian Succession Act.	Rs. 500	Nil.
Telangana	District Judge.	Unlimited	Land Acquisition Act, Indian Succession Act, Guardian and Wards Act, Payment of Wages Act, etc.	Rs. 300	Rs. 5,000
	Subordinate Judge**	Up to Rs. 20,000	Nil.	Rs. 200	Nil.
	Munsif***	Upto Rs. 2,000	Nil.	Rs. 50	Nil.

*.Subordinate Judge in the Andhra region are also Assistant Sessions Judges.

** Subordinate Judge are also District Magistrates.

***Munsifs are also Sub-Division Magistrates.

12. Volume of litigation.-

During the triednium 1954-56 on an average about 71,500 suits-regular and small cause-were instituted in civil courts (excluding village and panchayat courts) or one suit per 437.2 persons. The average institution in this period in the Andhra region was 65,304 suits or one suit per 316.1 persons whereas it was about 6,000 suits or one suit per 1,769 persons in the Telangana region.

13. The number and value of suits in different classes of civil courts, according to the statistics furnished by the High Court* are set out below:

*. All the statistics given in this chapter have been taken from data furnished by the High Court (The figures shown in the reports on the administration of civil and criminal justice do not always tally with those furnished to us by the High Court).

Table No. 2

Suits of the value	Andhra District				Telangana Region
	Number filed in			Average	Number filed in			Average
	1954	1955	1956		1954	1955	1956
Not exceeding Rs. 1000	57561	49764	54076	53800	4957	4102	4504	4521
Exceeding Rs. 1000 but not exceeding Rs. 2000	6256	5730	4893	5626	655	814	920	796
Exceeding Rs. 2000 but not exceeding Rs. 5000	7830	2524	2680	4345	439	517	553	503
Exceeding Rs. 5000 but not exceeding Rs. 10,000	1129	978	784	964	184	191	233	203
Exceeding Rs. 10000 but not exceeding Rs. 20000	327	285	237	283	NA	NA	NA	NA
Exceeding Rs. 20000 but not exceeding Rs. 50000	208	203	185	199	NA	NA	NA	NA
Exceeding Rs. 50000	101	78	81	87	NA	NA	NA	NA

Note.- Suits which are not capable of valuation are note Shown.

14. It appears from these figures that in Andhra districts about 95 per cent. of the suits are brought to trial before the courts of munsifs.

15. State of work in munsifs' courts.-

The following table shows the average number of proceedings instituted, disposed of and pending in the courts of Munsifs in the Andhra region during the three years preceding 1957.

Table No. 3

Nature of proceeding	Instituted	Disposed of	Pending
Original Suits	324	319.73	257.6
Small Cause Suits	614.9	615.5	126.7
Civil Misc. Petns.	2578.03	2558.03	322.5

16. The average duration of original suits disposed of after contest in the year 1955 was 391 days-not very much above the standard time prescribed by us for the disposal of suits in the subordinate courts.

17. On 1st January 1956, 16257 original suits were pending in the courts of Munsifs in the Andhra region out of which 5,400 were a year old-the oldest suit remaining pending having been instituted in 1934 as will be seen from the table given below:

Table No. 4

Year
1934	1941	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948
1	1	4	3	9	31	23	43
Year
1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955
66	115	194	319	1002	3576	10876

18. Though, as is evident from the figures given in Table No. 3, the Munsifs in the Andhra region are able to keep pace with institutions, the heavy pendency is due to the fact that there is an accumulation of old suits. Appointment of temporary Munsifs to wipe out the arrears seems to be essential to bring the file under control. Raising the cadre strength of Munsifs does not appear to be necessary.

19. There would not appear to be any reason for keeping the pecuniary jurisdiction of Munsifs in the Telangana region as low as Rs. 2,000 in original suits and Rs. 50 in small cause suits, especially as even village courts in the Andhra region have jurisdiction to try suits valued at Rs. 50. We recommend that the Munsifs in the Telangana region should have the same original and small cause jurisdiction as is conferred on their counterparts in the Andhra region. A single civil courts Act for the entire State is also very necessary.

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