Surendra Prosad Singh And Another v. Tekait Singh And Others

Surendra Prosad Singh And Another v. Tekait Singh And Others

(High Court Of Judicature At Patna)

| 24-07-1929

Das, J.The question which we have to consider in this appeal is whether a decree-holder is entitled to have a receiver appointed in respect of the agricultural lands belonging to the judgment-debtor in the Santhal Parganas by way of equitable execution. In my opinion he is not so entitled and the appeal ought to be dismissed.

2. It is contended by the learned advocate appearing on behalf of the decree-holder that according to Regulation 5 of 1893, the CPC governs the matter between the parties and that Section 51 of the Code gives him unrestricted right to apply for execution of the decree by the appointment of a receiver. Section 51 of the Code must, however, be read along with Section 27, Regulation 3 of 1872, which provides that:

No transfer by a raiyat of his right in his holding or any portion thereof, by sale, gift, mortgage, lease or any other contract or agreement, shall be valid unless the right to transfer has been recorded in the Record-of-Rights, and then only to the extent to which such right is, so recorded.

3. It was contended before us that all that is prohibited by Section 27 of the Regulation is voluntary alienation by the raiyati but in my judgment involuntary alienation stands on the same footing as voluntary alienation. It was the policy of the legislature to make it clear that raiyati holdings of agriculturists in the Santhal Parganas should be inalienable; and in my judgment to allow equitable execution by the appointment of a receiver would be both an evasion and an invasion of the statute on this point.

4. Reliance was placed on two decisions, one of the Lahore High Court and the other of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In Datar Kaur v. Ram Ratan [1920] 1 Lah. 192 , it was held that the civil Court can in execution of a decree order a temporary alienation of the land of a judgment-debtor, who is a member of an agricultural tribe, and that Section 16, Punjab Alienation of Land Act, prohibits only a sale and not a temporary alienation of such land. That was a decision on the construction of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act and if we were satisfied on a construction of Section 27, Regulation 3 of 1872 that a temporary alienation is not prohibited by the section, we would be prepared to accede to the argument advanced before us. It appears that the Punjab Alienation of Land Act allows alienations of a limited nature. In my opinion the decision of the Lahore High Court can throw no light whatever on the question before us. The other decision to which reference has been made was of the Judicial Committee in AIR 1925 176 (Privy Council) Under a deed of maintenance if was provided that the appellant should hold and possess certain villages yielding, a certain profit without power of transfer during the lifetime of the grantor. If was also provided that after the grantors death, the villages were to become the absolute property of the appellant and his descendants, but were not to be-transferred so long as the heirs of the grantor were in existence. The respondent had obtained a decree as against the appellant fore large sum of money and in execution of the decree she applied to attach and sell:

zamindari property with sir and khudkasht holdings together with all rights and interests appertaining thereto which the judgment-debtor has therein

in certain villages specified. The Judicial Committee had no difficulty in. coming to the conclusion that the right of maintenance which was all that was given to the appellant by the deed to which I have referred was in point of law neither attachable or saleable. Their Lordships, however, pointed out that:

the proper remedy lies, in a fitting case, in the appointment of a receiver for realizing the rents and profits of the property, paying, out of the same a sufficient and adequate sum, for the maintenance of the judgment-debtor-and his family, and applying the balance, if any, to the liquidation of the judgment-creditors debt.

5. But it is one thing to have a receiver appointed of the rents, issues and profits of a zemindari property; it is another and a different thing to have a receiver appointed of agricultural lands. In the one case the appointment of a receiver does not operate as a dispossession of the judgment-debtor, but in the other case the appointment of a receiver must inevitably lead to the dispossession of the judgment-debtor. The appointment of a receiver by way of equitable execution is in fact the equitable attachment of the property; and in my judgment ibis impossible to say that the decree-holder can do that indirectly which he cannot do directly by the attachment and sale of the agricultural holding. If the argument of the learned advocate were well founded it would be open to the decree-holder to apply for attachment and sale of the agricultural holding of the judgment-debtor. It has, how-ever, been held by this Court that an agricultural holding in the Santhal Parganas cannot be sold in execution of a decree In my judgment the view taken of this matter by the learned District Judge is correct.

6. The appeal fails and must be dismissed with costs.

Junes, J.

I agree.

Rowland, J.

I agree.

Advocate List
Bench
  • HON'BLE JUSTICE Rowland, J
  • HON'BLE JUSTICE Junes, J
  • HON'BLE JUSTICE Das, J
Eq Citations
  • AIR 1929 PAT 700
  • LQ/PatHC/1929/223
Head Note

A. Civil Procedure Code, Ss. 51, 52 and 53 — Appointment of receiver — Validity of, in respect of agricultural lands belonging to judgment-debtor in Santhal Parganas by way of equitable execution — Inapplicability of Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 1900 — S. 27, Regulation 3 of 1872 — S. 27, Regulation 3 — S. 27, Regulation 3 of 1872, which provides that “No transfer by a raiyat of his right in his holding or any portion thereof, by sale, gift, mortgage, lease or any other contract or agreement, shall be valid unless the right to transfer has been recorded in the Record-of-Rights, and then only to the extent to which such right is, so recorded” — Involuntary alienation stands on the same footing as voluntary alienation — It was the policy of the legislature to make it clear that raiyati holdings of agriculturists in the Santhal Parganas should be inalienable — To allow equitable execution by appointment of a receiver would be both an evasion and an invasion of the statute on this point — Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 1900, S. 16 —