It all started in 1882 for the small causes court …Swati Deshpande I TNN
Mumbai: It was an easy case. I charged Rs 30 for my fees. The case was not likely to last longer than a day. This was my debut in the Small Causes Court, wrote Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in his autobiography.
Few know that the Father of the Nation debuted in the early 1900s as a lawyer in the same Small Causes Court in the city which on Friday completes 125 years. The Mahmata goes on, I appeared for the defendant..I stood up, but my heart sank into my boots. My head was reeling and I felt the whole court was doing likewise. I could think of no question to ask. The judge must have laughed…I sat down and told the agent that I could not conduct the case…
A plaque put up by the Bombay Advocates Association to show that the Mahatma began his career as an advocate in the court stands hidden behind a row of upturned gre-en rusted metal cupboards on the ground floor at the entrance of the imposing architectural groundplus-four-storeyed structure with its beautiful wide corridors, which was completed in 1918 at Rs 11.06 lakh.
The small causes courts were established in 1850 for Bombay, Calcutta and Madras after abolishing what were known as courts of request, which had been set up in 1873 under a charter from King George II of England. The Presidency Small Causes Court Act was enacted in 1882.
Many young lawyers were not aware about the Mahatmas early march in the Small Causes Court. On Friday as the celebration of the courts 125th year culminates with a visit by Supreme Court judge V S Sirpurkar, the court that had a reputation of disposing of matters within six months with five judges during the 1930s now has over 35,000 cases pending in the court at Dhobi Talao.
Advocate Mulraj Shah, an expert on Rent Act cases, who has been practising at the Small Causes Court for decades, recalls how during the Great Depression, this court saw its busiest period with an average 40,000 money suits and commission agent disputes being filed mostly by Indians. The jurisdiction in 1864 for money suits in the small causes court was Rs 1,000 and now it is Rs 3,000, said Shah.
But he noted that because of its reputation of disposing of cases fast back then, when Indias first comprehensive rent lawthe Bombay Rent Control Actwas enacted in 1947, the exclusive jurisdiction, to hear cases involving unlimited property value, was given to the small cases court and it continues even today. He added, In fact, the entire rent law developed in this very court through judgments, especially one passed in 1949, in Appeal Number 101 of 1948 over how to fix a fair rent. The principles laid down were used by other states in their laws.
The majority of the cases that the court hears are rent cases, disputes between a licenser and licensee and municipal octroi recovery.