OUSEPH THOMMAN Vs. DEVASIA OUSEPH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal which has been referred to a division bench raises the question whether the petition dated the 29th September, 1959, for the execution of a decree dated the 16th July 1954, is barred by limitation or not. The two courts below have held that it is barred. They have done so on the footing, that the debt under the decree is a debt as defined by the Travancore - Cochin Indebted Agriculturists Relief Act, 1956, Act 3 of 1956, and the Kerala Agriculturists Debt Relief Act, 1958, Act 31 of 1958. We shall decide the point raised on the same footing, but shall leave it to the execution court to decide, whether the respondents are agriculturists and the debt is a debt as defined in the two Acts.

(2.) S.3 of Act 3 of 1956 placed an embargo on the making of an application for the execution of a decree, for a period of six months from the commencement of that Act. The appellant had a right to execute the decree within a period of three years and six months of the date of the decree, that is, till the 16th January, 1958. Under that Act, the first instalment of the debt was payable on or before the 28th February, 1957, and the second on or before the 31st August, 1957. S.4(2) of that Act was as follows: -

(3.) If as stated, the appellant had the right to execute the decree till the 16th January, 1958, upon the default in payment of the first and second instalments on the dates aforesaid, the appellant acquired a fresh right to execute the decree on those dates. When Act 31 of 1958 came into force on the 14th July, 1958, the right to execute the decree had not become barred. Under Act 31 of 1958, the dates of the first and second instalments were respectively the 14th January and the 14th July, 1959. The petition for execution was only in respect of the first two instalments. It follows from the above, that the petition was not barred by limitation, in case Act 3 of 1956 and Act 31 of 1958 are applicable.