Section 9A
which was inserted by a State Amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
provides that when at the hearing of application relating to interim relief in
a suit, objection to jurisdiction is taken, such issue to be decided by the
court as a preliminary issue and the court must first proceed to determine the issue
of jurisdiction as a preliminary issue before granting for setting aside the
order granting the interim relief.
Till date, the
Judges of the Civil Courts in Maharashtra would entertain even issues of
limitation in section 9A applications. However, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has
recently held in Kamalakar Eknath Salunkhe vs. Baburav Vishnu Javalkar & Ors.
(Civil Appeal No. 1085 of 2015) that the word ‘jurisdiction’ used in section 9A
did not include issues of limitation. However, the judgement has received some criticism, even from the Judges of the Supreme Court itself.