ACT IX.

Security of balances
in court.

days.
Separate sittings of
judges.

Seat of court.

Punishment for
forging, or using a

Limitation of juris'
diction.


304

[A.D. 1850.

to him shall seem fit, and may again increase such fees, so that the scale of
fees given in this Act he not in any case surpassed.
XXII. The Governor in Council shall from time to time make such
rules as to him shall seem meet for securing the balances and other sums
of money in the hands of any officers of every court holden under this
Act, and for the due accounting for and application of all such balances
and other sums of money.
XXIII. The courts shall sit daily, except on Sundays, Christmas-day,
and Good Friday, and on native or other holidays, which the Governor
in Council shall direct the court to observe; and each of the judges may
sit apart from the others, or with either of them, at the same time or
at different times ; and any one or two of the said judges so sitting
apart shall have all the judicial authority which is herein given to all the
judges.

XXIV. A seal shall be made for every court holden under this Act,
under the direction of the Governor in Council, and all summonses and
other process issuing out of the court shall be sealed or stamped with the
seal of the court; and every person who shall forge the seal or any pro-
cess of the court, or who shall serve or enforce any such forged process,
knowing the same to be forged, or deliver or cause to be delivered to any
person any paper falsely purporting to be a copy of any summons, or other
process of the said court, knowing the same to be false, or who shall act
or profess to act under any false colour or pretence of the process of the
said court, shall be guilty of felonv.
XXV. All suits where the debt or damage claimed or value of the pro-
perty in dispute is not more than five hundred rupees, whether on balance
of account or otherwise, may be brought in the Court of Small Causes;
and all such suits brought in the said court shall be heard and determined
in a summary way, and every defence which would be deemed good in the
Supreme Court sitting as a Court of Equity shall be a good bar to any
legal demand in the Court of Small Causes. Provided always, that the
court shall not have jurisdiction in any matter concerning the revenue, or
concerning any Act ordered or done by the Governor, or Governor-General,
or any member of the Council of India, or of any presidency, in his public
capacity, or done by any person by order of the Governor-General or
Governor in Council, or concerning any act ordered or done by any judge
or judicial officer in the execution of his office, or by any person in pursu-
ance of any judgment or order of any court, or any such judge or judicial
officer, or in any suit for libel or slander.
XXVI. On the application of any person desirous to bring a suit under
this Act, the clerk of the court shall issue, under the seal of the court, a
summons, which shall be numbered, and shall set forth the names of the
plaintiff and defendant, the cause of action, with such particulars as shall be
from time to time directed by the rules of the court, and the amount sued
for, and shall be served on the defendant so many days before the day on
which the court shall be holden at which the cause is to be tried as shall