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The majority judgment also referred to Clause 44 of the Letters Patent
and observed that Letters Patent is a special law vis-a-vis the Code and
in case of conflict, the former would prevail except when there is an
exclusion of the special law like the one made by Section 100A. In
paragraph 32 of the judgment, the Court observed as follows : (AIR
page 5177)
"It was next submitted that clause 44 of the Letters
Patent showed that Letters Patent were subject to
amendment and alteration. It was submitted that this
showed that a Letters Patent was a subordinate or
subservient piece of law. Undoubtedly, clause 44 permits
amendment or alteration of Letters Patent, but then
which legislation is not subject to amendment or
alteration? CPC is also subject to amendments and
alterations. In fact it has been amended on a number of
occasions. The only unalterable provisions are the basic
structure of our Constitution. Merely because there is a
provision for amendment does not mean that, in the
absence of an amendment or a contrary provision, the
Letters Patent is to be ignored. To submit that a Letters
Patent is a subordinate piece of legislation is to not
understand the true nature of a Letters Patent. As has
been held in Vinita Khanolkar's case and Sharda
Devi's case, a Letters Patent is the charter of the High
Court. As held in Shah Babulal Khimji vs. Jayaben D.
Kania (1981 (4) S.C.C. 8, a Letters Patent is the specific
law under which a High Court derives its powers. It is not
any subordinate piece of legislation. As set out in the
aforementioned two cases a Letters Patent cannot be
excluded by implication. Further it is settled law that
between a special law and a general law the special law
will always prevail. A Letters Patent is a special law for
the High Court concerned. The Civil Procedure Code is a
general law applicable to all courts. It is well-settled law,
that in the event of a conflict between a special law and a
general law, the special law must always prevail. We see
no conflict between the Letters Patent and Section 104
but if there was any conflict between a Letters Patent and
the Civil Procedure Code then the provisions of the
Letters Patent would always prevail unless there was a
specific exclusion. This is also clear from Section 4 of the
Civil Procedure Code which provides that nothing in the
Code shall limit or affect any special law. As set out in
Section 4 CPC only a specific provision to the contrary
can exclude the special law. The specific provision would
be a provision like Section 100-A."