28 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
be continued to be heard and decided by the Privy Council. But if on that day the appeal is not “a pending appeal” within the definition of this Bill, then the jurisdiction of the Federal Court extends to such an appeal as the Federal Court gets a right to hear and decide such an appeal.
Section 7 of the Bill describes what is “a pending appeal”. Now for this purpose a rough and ready made rule has been adopted in the Bill. The rule is this : that if the records of an appeal are transmitted by the High Court to the Privy Council on the appointed day or before the appointed day, then the appeal is a pending appeal and the Privy Council continues to exercise its jurisdiction to hear such an appeal, although it is a direct appeal.
If on the other hand the appeal is in such a state that the records have not been transmitted, then the appeal becomes automatically transferred so to say to the Federal Court and the Federal Court gets the right to hear the appeal.
Appeals to the Privy Council go in two different ways. They go under what are called the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code, Sections 109 and 110, which
12 N OON are called appeals by grants or they are appeals where the party have a right to appeal. In addition to that the Privy Council also has got the right to give special leave to appeal and when a party obtains special leave to appeal, such appeals also go to the Privy Council. Appeals which go to the Privy Council directly from the High Court on special leave being granted by the Privy Council, are also dealt with in Section 5 of the Bill. The provision there is this:
“Every application to His Majesty in Council for special leave to appeal from a judgment to which this Act applies remaining undisposed of immediately before the appointed day shall on that day stand transferred to the Federal Court by virtue of this Act.”
If it is disposed of, that is to say, if it rejected no further question arises. If it is admitted then the Privy Council will be competent to deal with it. But if the Privy Council has not passed any order, then such an appeal shall be deemed to be transferred to the Federal Court and the Federal Court will have the right to dispose of the matter.