39. Power to confer powers of civil courts on officers in Hill Areas and procedure before the
courts of such officers.—(1) The Chief Commissioner after consultation with the Judicial Commissioner
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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) 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) 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.
40. Power of the Judicial Commissioner to make rules.—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:—
(a) the supervision of all courts subordinate to the Court of the Judicial Commissioner and their
inspection;
(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;
(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;
(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;
(e) the various matters relating to the officers of the court;
(f) the persons to be, permitted to act as petition-writers in the court subordinate thereto or act as
pleaders' clerks;
(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;
(h) the authority by which breaches of such rules shall be investigated and the penalty which may
be imposed.
41. Presiding officers of courts not to try suits and cases in which they are interested.—(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) No presiding officer shall hear an appeal from any judgment, decree, sentence or order passed or
made by himself.
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(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) 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.
42. Certain decisions to be according to custom or personal law.—(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) 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.
43. Holidays.—(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) The list of holidays shall be published in the Official Gazette.
(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.
44. Pending proceedings.—(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) 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) 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.
45. Repeals and savings.—(1) The Manipur State Courts Act 1947, as amended by the Manipur State
Courts (Amendment) Order, 1950, is hereby repealed.
(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.
46. Declaration of the Judicial Commissioner's Court as a High Court for certain purposes.—
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.