Chapter IV SUPPLEMENTAL AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

1. (1) The Chief Commissioner after consultation with the Judicial Commissioner may, by notification in the Official Gazette, invest, by name or in virtue of office, any officer in the hill areas with the powers of any civil court under this Act and upon such investiture the provisions of this Act shall, so far as they can be made applicable, apply to him as if he were a judge of the court with the powers of which he is invested.
2. (2) Where the place at which the court of an officer invested with powers under sub-section (1) is to be held, has not been fixed under section 26, the court may be held at any place within the local limits of its jurisdiction.
3. (3) The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), shall apply to all suits and proceedings before the court of an officer invested with powers under sub-section (1) subject to the following exceptions, namely:—
   • (a) a defendant in a suit may, instead of filing a written statement, make an oral statement of his defence which shall be recorded by the court;
   • (b) all applications by parties in any suit or proceeding may be made orally before the court;
   • (c) no appearance, application or act in or to the court, required or authorised by law to be made or done by a party in such court shall be made or done by a pleader (as defined in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908)) save with the permission of the court;
   • (d) it shall be sufficient for the court to make a memorandum of the substance of the evidence of any witness examined by it and it shall not be necessary for the court to take down evidence of any witness in writing at length unless the court is, on the application of any party or otherwise, satisfied that there is any special reason for so doing.

The Court of the Judicial Commissioner may make rules consistent with this Act and any other law for the time being in force, providing for all or any of the following matters, namely:—

1. (a) the supervision of all courts subordinate to the Court of the Judicial Commissioner and their inspection;
2. (b) the translation of any papers filed in the Court of the Judicial Commissioner and the preparation of paper-books for the hearing of appeals and the copying, typing or printing of any such papers or translations and the recovery from the persons at whose instance or on whose behalf papers are filed, all the expenses thereby incurred;
3. (c) the fees to be charged for processes issued by a civil court or by any officer of any such court and the fee payable in any suit or proceeding, in any such court by any party to such suit or proceeding in respect of the fees of the pleader of any other party to such suit or proceeding;
4. (d) the manner in which the proceedings of civil courts shall be kept and recorded, and the manner in which paper-books for the hearing shall be prepared and the granting of copies;
5. (e) the various matters relating to the officers of the court;
6. (f) the persons to be, permitted to act as petition-writers in the court subordinate thereto or act as pleaders' clerks;
7. (g) the issue of licences to persons referred to in clause (f), the conduct of business by them and the scale of fees to be charged by them;
8. (h) the authority by which breaches of such rules shall be investigated and the penalty which may be imposed.

1. (1) The presiding officer of a court shall not try any suit, proceeding or other case, or hear any appeal, to which he is a party or in which he is personally interested.
2. (2) No presiding officer shall hear an appeal from any judgment, decree, sentence or order passed or made by himself.
3. (3) Where any such suit, proceeding, case or appeal as is referred to in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) comes before any such officer, he shall transmit forthwith the record of such suit, proceeding, case or appeal as the case may be, to the court to which he is immediately subordinate with the report of the circumstances attending the reference.
4. (4) The superior court may transfer the suit, proceeding, case or appeal either to itself or to any court under its administrative control competent to decide it.

1. (1) Where in any suit or proceeding, it is necessary for any court under this Act to decide any question regarding succession, inheritance, marriage or caste or any religious usage or institution, any custom (if such there be) having the force of law, orany personal law, governing the parties, or the property of the parties to such suit or proceeding shall form the rule of decision except in so far as such custom or personal law has, by legislative enactment, been altered or abolished.
2. (2) In cases not provided for by sub-section (1) or by any other law for the time being in force, the court shall decide the suit or proceeding according to justice, equity and good conscience.

1. (1) Subject to the approval of the Chief Commissioner, the Judicial Commissioner shall prepare a list of days to be observed in each year as closed holidays in the Court of the Judicial Commissioner and the civil courts subordinate to that Court.
2. (2) The list of holidays shall be published in the Official Gazette.
3. (3) A judicial act done by a court on a day specified in the list shall not be invalid by reason only of its having been done on that day.

1. (1) Any suit, proceeding, case or appeal pending in a court immediately before the commencement of this Act shall, upon the commencement of this Act, be deemed to be transferred to the court exercising under this Act jurisdiction which corresponds, as far as may be, to the jurisdiction of the court in which the suit, proceeding, case or appeal was pending and the court to which the suit, proceeding, case or appeal is deemed to be transferred shall proceed to try, hear and determine the matter as if it had been pending in that court.
2. (2) Any appeal from a judgment, decree, sentence or order passed or made by a court and not appealed against before the commencement of this Act shall, after such commencement, lie to the court exercising under this Act jurisdiction which corresponds, as far as may be, to the jurisdiction of the court to which such appeal would have lain if this Act had not been passed and had not come into force.
3. (3) Any judgment, decree, sentence or order passed or made before the commencement of this Act by any court shall be deemed for the purpose of execution to have been passed by a court constituted under this Act which corresponds, as far as may be, to the court which passed or made the judgment, decree, sentence or order as the case may be: Provided that nothing contained in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be construed as extending period of limitation to which any suit, proceeding, case or appeal may be subject.

1. (1) The Manipur State Courts Act 1947, as amended by the Manipur State Courts (Amendment) Order, 1950, is hereby repealed.
2. (2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken (including any appointment or delegation made, order, Instrument or direction issued, rule or regulation made under that Act) shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of this Act and shall continue in force accordingly unless and until superseded by anything done or any action taken under the relevant provisions of this Act.

The Court of the Judicial Commissioner established under section 3 is hereby declared to be a High Court for the purposes of articles 132, 133 and 134 of the Constitution; and the provisions of the Judicial Commissioners' Courts (Declaration as High Courts) Act, 1950 (15 of 1950), shall apply to that Court as they apply to a Judicial Commissioner's Court in existence at the commencement of this Act.