SUBRAMONIA IYER Vs. KANDU S/O RAKKANDI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are defendants 1 and 2 in a suit of redemption of a mortgage evidenced by Ext. B1 dated July 26, 1884. The mortgagor had a kanom right in the property, which was made the subject of the mortgage under Ext. B1. The mortgage, by assignment under Ext. A2, became vested in Sivarama Pattar, the predecessor in interest of the appellants. Ext. A2 was on August 30, 1892. On June 17, 1897, the mortgagor executed an assignment of his equity of redemption in favour of the predecessors of the appellants evidenced by Ext. B4 in the case. But it was not registered and has therefore been found inoperative to convey any title to the vendee. Subsequent to Ext. B4 the assignees thereunder obtained renewal of the kanom under Ext. B 5 dated February 19, 1912. On September 27, 1950, there was a partition in the family of the 1st defendant, without junction of the 2nd defendant, wherein the suit property was referred to as a mortgage right. The plaintiff, who is the son of the mortgagor of Ext. A1, ignoring Ext. B4 and claiming the equity of redemption as vested in him as successor to the original mortgagor, has instituted this suit for redemption of the mortgage. The defendants contended inter alia that he had lost the right to redeem on' account of their long adverse possession of the property. The Courts below concurred to find that Ext. B4 was inoperative and inadmissible in evidence, that the possession of the appellants and their predecessors as assignees of the mortgage could not have changed its character under Ext. B4 and therefore decreed the suit. In this second appeal counsel for the appellants contends that the law of adverse possession of mortgagees who have taken an invalid or inoperative conveyance from the mortgagor has not been correctly appreciated by the Courts below.

(2.) The question recently came up for consideration by the Supreme Court in Padma Vithoba Chakkayya v. Mohd. Multani, AIR 1963 SC 70 when their Lordships observed:

(3.) The dictum in AIR 1921 Mad 82, given in the headnotes correctly, is as follows: