AIR 1944 NAGPUR 44

Nagpur High Court

Hon'ble Judge(s): Niyogi, Vivian Bose, Sen , JJJ

(A) Practice-Judge-Duty of - Judge must decide case according to his conception of law (Per Bose J.). It is the duty of Judges primarily to decide cases in accordance with what they conceive to be the law. It does not matter what other persons, or, apart from precedent, what other Judges think. That is what the judicial oath requires.(Para 49f,g) (B) Law Reports Act (18 of 1875) , S.3, S.4— Act is merely addendum to Evidence Act, S. 78 - Judgment of Division Bench though not reported is binding on single Judge. All the Law Reports Act does is to ensure that Judges who have no access to the decisions themselves shall be provided with accurate copies of them. The Act is little more than an addendum to S. 78, @page-Ngp45 Evidence Act, which provides for the manner in which public documents may be proved. If an officially certified copy of a judgment of the High Court were to be produced in a lower Court the lower Court would be bound to treat it in the same way as it would an officially reported judgment. A lower Court is bound by an unpublished ruling of its own High Court but not by an obiter dicta :(Para 51b,c) Hence a single Judge of the High Court is bound by the decision of the D....