CHACKO Vs. SUBRAMANIA IYEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant's father had mortgaged landed properties to the late father of the respondent for Rs. 42,500/- and taken them back on a lease under the mortgagee. On the averment that the consideration for the mortgage represented old debts under promissory notes and hypothecations and that on proper account being taken of the actual advances and the returns by way of interest and towards the principal nothing remained due to the respondent, the appellant filed an application under S.8 of the Kerala Agriculturists Debt Relief Act, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') praying for a declaration that the debt between the parties had been discharged and, in case the court finds any amount remaining due, for leave to discharge the same in instalments under S.4 of the Act. The respondent raised a preliminary objection that such an application does not lie under S.8 of the Act. The court below has accepted that objection and dismissed the application as incompetent. In this appeal, the appellant canvasses the correctness of that order.

(2.) Sub-s.(1) to (3) and (5) of S.8 of the Act run thus:

(3.) Counsel for the appellant relied on a Full Bench ruling of the erstwhile Travancore High Court in Gourikutty Amma v. Sankara Iyer (1947 TLR 348) construing an almost parallel section in the Travancore Debt Relief Act, 1116. There, Krishnaswami Aiyar C. J. held: