BALWANT SINGH Vs. BISHAN SAHAI OM PRAKASH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by a displaced creditor under the Displaced Persons (Debts Adjustment) Act, 1951. The appellant was a displaced person who was residing at Mathura. He alleged that a debt was due to him from firm Bishun Sahai Om Prakash which belonged to two persons Jagannath and his son Om Prakash. Alleging that the debtors were not displaced persons, the appellant filed a claim against the debtors firm and its two partners under Section 13 of the Displaced Persons (Debts Adjustment) Act. The claim was filed in the court of Civil Judge, Mathura. It was contested both by Jagannath and by Om Prakash. Both these persons denied their liability. Om Prakash said that he had nothing to do with the debt or the firm Bishun Sahai Om Prakash. He did not dispute that he was not a displaced person. Jagannath, on the other hand, said that he was himself a displaced person and that the claim against him was not maintainable in the Mathura court. He alleged that he was a resident of Amritsar and if the creditor had any claim against him it should have been preferred there.

(2.) The learned Civil Judge held that the appellant was a displaced creditor, that Om Prakash was a non-displaced person but that Jagannath was a displaced person. He was therefore of opinion that Section 13 of the Act did not apply and the claim was not maintainable under its provisions. He, therefore, dismissed the claim with costs to Jagannath.

(3.) In appeal the claimant Sardar Balwant Singh contends that the view taken by the learned Civil Judge was erroneous, that his claim was maintainable under Section 13 of the Act and that in any case if it had been filed in a wrong Court it should have been returned to him for presentation to a proper court.