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other of the Madras High Court, and they undoubtedly support him. In Aga Mohd. Hamdani v. Cohen and Ors.(1) -as well as in Ramasami Pillai v. Deputy Collector of, Madura(1) which followed it-the Court held that to attract this article it was not necessary in order to be an "appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure" within the meaning of those words in Art. 156, that the right to prefer the appeal should be conferred by the Code of Civil Procedure but that it was sufficient if the procedure for the filing of the appeal and the powers of the court for dealing with the appeal were governed by that Code. For adopting this construction the Court relied on the reference in Art. 156 to Art. 151. Article 151 dealt with appeals to the High Court from judgment rendered on the original side of that Court. The right to prefer these appeals was conferred by the Letters Patent constituting the respective High Courts and not by the Code of Civil Procedure, though the Code of Civil Procedure governed the procedure, jurisdiction and powers of the Court in dealing with the appeals so filed. There would have been need therefore to except cases covered by Art. 151 only if the words "under the Code of Civil Procedure" were understood as meaning appeals for the disposal of which the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure was made applicable. We might mention that besides the Calcutta and the Madras High Courts a Full Bench of the Allahabad High Court also has in Daropadi v. Hira Lal (3 ) adopted a similar construction of the Article, the learned Judges pointing out that several Indian enactments, among them the Indian -Succession Act, the Probate and Administration Act, the Land Acquisition Act and the Provincial Insolvency Act, proceeded on the basis of a legislative practice of con- ferring rights of appeal under the respective statutes without prescribing any period of limitation within which the appeal should be preferred, but directing the application, of the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code to such appeals, the intention obviously being that Art. 156 would furnish the period of limitation for such appeals. We consider that these deci-

(1) 1. L. R. 13 Cal. 221.

(3) 1. L. R. 34 Allahabad 496.

(2) 1. L. R. 43 Mad. 51.

sions correctly interpret Art. 156 and, in any event, we are not prepared to disturb the decisions which have stood for so long and on the basis of the correctness of which Indian legislation has proceeded.

Mr. Pathak drew our attention to some decisions in which a different construction was adopted of the word "under" a particular enactment occurring in other Articles of the Limitation Act and in particular some dealing with appeals in certain criminal matters. In them the word 'under' was understood as meaning "by virtue of". He was, however, unable to bring to our notice any decision in which the construction adopted of Art. 156 which we have set out has been departed from. In the cases dealing with the words "under the Criminal Procedure Code" which he placed before us, the situation would obviously be different, since the indication afforded by the mention of Art. 151 in Art. 156 does not figure in the Articles dealt with. Therefore that would be a circumstance pointing to a different result. If the construction adopted of Art. 156 in the Calcutta and Madras decisions to which we have referred were upheld, there could be no controversy that an appeal under s. 116A of the Representation of the People Act would be "under the Code of Civil Procedure", for s. 116A(2) enacts, to read the material portion:

(3)Where a decree is appealed from or sought to be reviewed, the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the judgment on which it is founded shall also be excluded. Section 116-A of the Act confers a right of appeal against an order of the Tribunal under s. 98 or s. 99 thereof; sub- s.(3) thereof prescribes a period of limitation of 30 days for preferring such an appeal. Section 29 of (the Limitation Act attracts, by fiction, the provisions of s. 3 thereof to an appeal described in s. 29 of the said Act; with the result, the provisions of sub-ss. (2) and (3) of s. 12 of the Limitation Act are attracted thereto; and if those sub-sections were attracted in computing the period of limitation prescribed for an appeal the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the decree or order or judgment on which it is founded shall be excluded. Learned counsel for the appellant, therefore, contends that s. 29 of the Limitation Act does not apply to an appeal under s. 116-A of the Act. The first argument of learned counsel is that for invoking sub-s.(2) of s. 29 of the Limitation Act the necessary condition is that the First Schedule thereto shall prescribe a period of limitation for an appeal and that a special law shall prescribe for the same type of appeal a different period of limitation and that, as in the present case the First Schedule has not prescribed any period of limitation to an appeal under s. 116-A of the Act against an order of the Tribunal, sub-s. (2) of s. 29 of the Act -is not attracted. This argument is met by learned counsel for the respondents in two ways, namely, (i) that the First Schedule to the Limitation Act has prescribed a period of limitation for such an appeal, and (ii) that sub- s. (2) will apply even to a case where the First Schedule to the Limitation Act has not prescribed any period of limitation for an appeal, but a special law prescribed a period of limitation for such an appeal. I shall proceed to consider the two limbs of the argument separately. Has the First Schedule to the Limitation Act prescribed a period of limitation for an appeal against an order of an Election Tribunal under s. 98 or s. 99 of the Act? Article 156 of the First Schedule to the Limitation Act says that to an appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to a High Court, except in the cases provided for by article 151 and article 153, the period of limitation is 90 days from the date of the decree or order appealed from; and article 151 referred to in article 156 provides for an appeal against a decree or order of any of the High Courts of Judicature at Fort William, Madras, and Bombay, or of the High Court of Punjab in the exercise of its original jurisdiction. What does the expression "under the Code of Civil Procedure" in art. 156 of the First Schedule to the Limitation Act connote? Does it mean that a right of appeal shall be conferred under the Code of Civil Procedure, or does it mean that the procedure prescribed by the said Code shall apply to such an appeal? A comparison of the terms of art. 156 and art. 151 indicates that the emphasis is more upon the procedure applicable to an appeal than on 'the right of appeal conferred under an Act. The heading of the first column in the First Schedule to the Limitation Act is "Description of appeal". The phraseology used in art. 156 describes the nature of the appeal in respect of which a particular period of limitation is prescribed. It does not refer to a right conferred under the Code of Civil Procedure, but only describes the appeal with reference to the procedure applicable thereto. Though the word "under" may support the contrary view, the reference to

-art. 151 therein detracts from it. Article 151 is an exception to art. 156, indicating thereby that, but for the exception art. 156 will apply to an appeal covered by art. 151: that is to say, an appeal under art. 151 is deemed to be an appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure. Though a right of appeal is conferred under the Letters Patent, it is deemed to be an appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure, because the Code of Civil Procedure governs the said appeal. As Rajamannar, C.J., observed in Kandaswami Pillai v. Kannappa Chetty(1), "It is well established that the Limitation Act and the Code are to be read together, because both are statutes relating to procedure and they are in pari materia and, therefore, to be taken and construed together as one system as explanatory of each other." So construed it may reasonably be held that art. 156 provides for an appeal governed by the procedure prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure. This view was accepted by the Calcutta High Court as early as 1886 in Aga Mahomed Hamadani v. Cohen(1). There, under s. 49 of the Burma Courts Act (XVII of 1875), where the amount or value of a suit or proceeding in the Recorder's Court exceeded Rs. 3,000, and was less than Rs. 10,000, an appeal lay to the High Court. Under s. 97 of the said Act, "save as otherwise provided by this Act, the Code of Civil Procedure shall be, and shall, on and from the 15th day of April 1872, be deemed to have been in force throughout British Burma". Section 540 of the Civil Procedure Code of 1882, which was in force at that time, read: