mofussil
Meaning. The provinces or rural areas, as distinct from the presidency towns and their courts.
Mofussil is a colonial-era term for the country districts outside the three presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. Mofussil courts were the district and subordinate courts in those areas, as distinct from the Supreme Courts and, later, the original side of the High Courts in the presidency towns.
The word still appears in older statutes, law reports and the rules of some High Courts, and lawyers use it loosely for courts outside the metropolitan cities. It has no special legal effect today.
Example
The old decisions distinguished the procedure on the original side of the Calcutta High Court from that followed in the mofussil courts.
See also
Read more in the study notes
- Introduction to the CPC: procedural law, history and key definitions (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Pleadings: fundamental rules, verification and amendment (Order VI) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Principles of civil pleading and the legal notice (Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance)