AKKYANAICKER Vs. AAA KOTCHADAINAIDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant/decree-holder being aggrieved against the judgment and order of the High Court of Judicature at Madras in CRP No. 3540 of 1992 wherein the High Court while allowing the Civil Revision Petition filed by the respondent has dismissed the execution petition filed by the appellant, has filed the present appeal by leave of the Court.

(2.) Appellant / decree holder (hereinafter referred to as 'the decree holder") filed O.S. No. 322 of the 1972 seeking a decree in the sum of Rs. 18,912/- along with agreed rate of interest @ 12% p.a. being the principal and the interest due on the promissory note dated 3-6-1968 executed by the respondent/judgment debtor (hereinafter referred to as 'the judgment debtor'). The suit was decreed on 2-5-1973. This decree became final between the parties.

(3.) Decree holder filed execution petition No. 226 of 1973 but the proceedings in the same were closed because of the legislative intervention of the Tamil Nadu Indebted Agriculturists (Temporary Relief) Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance 1 of 1975). As per Section 3 no suit for recovery of a debt or an application for execution of a decree for payment of money passed in a suit for the recovery of a debt could be instituted against an agriculturist in a civil or revenue Court before the expiry of a year from the date of the commencement of the Ordinance. Section 4 provided for the stay of proceedings in the suits or applications of the nature mentioned in Section 3 in which relief claimed was against the agriculturist, not being proceedings for the amendment of pleadings or for the addition, substitution, or the striking off of parties, but otherwise inclusive of proceedings consequent on orders or decrees made in appeals, revision petitions, or applications for review. Section 5 provided that in computing the period of limitation or limit of time prescribed for a suit for the recovery of a debt or an application for the execution of a decree passed in such suit, the time during which the institution of the suit or making of the application was barred by Section 3 of the Ordinance or during which the plaintiff or his predecessor-in-title believing in good faith that Section 3 of the Ordinance applied to such suit or such application refrained from instituting the suit or making the application shall be excluded. The execution of the decree already obtained was suspended for a period of one year.