1. The question before us is whether the appeal lies to the District Court or to the High Court. The suit in which the order was passed was one in
which the subject-matter was over Rs. 5,000 in value and the appeal in the suit therefore lay to the High Court.
2. As Section 589 of the CPC was first enacted, appeals from orders specified u/s 588, Clause 17, lay in all cases to the High Court. This was
modified by Act VII of 1888, in which the Court to hear the appeal in the suit was made the Court to hear the appeal against the orders in
insolvency matters. The section thus modified failed, however, to provide for cases in which orders in insolvency matters were passed by Courts of
Small Causes, and by Section 3, Act X of 1888, it was provided that an appeal from an order specified in Section 588, Clause 17, should lie (a)
to the District Court when the order was passed by a Court subordinate to that Court; and (b) to the High Court in any other case.
3. The question, therefore, is whether Clause (a) operates to transfer the jurisdiction from the High Court to the District Court, in cases in which
the subject-matter of the suit is over Rs. 5,000 in value. Section 2 of the CPC makes a Subordinate Court subordinate both to the High Court and
the District Court, but the Civil Courts Act gives the appellate jurisdiction exclusively to the High Court in suits in which the subject-matter is over
Rs. 5,000 in value. Bearing in mind that Section 589 of the CPC was passed to regulate the appellate jurisdiction in appeals from orders, we are of
opinion that the words ''Court subordinate to that Court'' must be construed with reference to its appellate jurisdiction. It would be anomalous that
a District Court should have jurisdiction to hear appeals from such orders when it had no jurisdiction to hear an appeal in the suit itself, and the first
clause in the section points to an intention to give jurisdiction in insolvency matters to the ordinary appellate forum.
4. We must set aside the order of the District Court and direct that the appeal be returned to the party for presentation in the High Court.
Appellant is entitled to his costs in this appeal, but we make no order as to costs in the Court below, since the point was not taken there.
