RAJA GANGA PRATAP SINGH Vs. ALLAHABAD BANK LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Allahabad Bank instituted a suit against the Deputy Commissioner incharge of the Court of Wards, Mallanpur Estate, for whom Raja Ganga Pratap Singh was later substituted, for the recovery of a considerable sum of money on the foot of a mortgage executed by the Court of Wards on behalf of the father of the applicant in 1939.

(2.) The defendant raised many pleas and stated a great many facts which indicate that his case was a very hard one and that, in spite of the fact that he and his predecessors had made payments of considerable sums of money to the Bank on the basis of earlier mortgages of which the mortgage in suit was said to be a renewal, a large sum still remains due. Later on, by an application for amendment, he added a plea that he was entitled to the benefit of Sections 3 and 8, U. P. Zamindars' Debt Reduction Act of 1952 since the definition of debt given in the said Act was ultra vires being against the provisions of the Constitution.

(3.) This plea was incorporated in the written statement and an application was made to the Court to make a reference to the High Court in view of the provisions of the proviso to Section 113, Civil P. C. The learned Civil Judge did not think it a proper case in which to make reference and he rejected the prayer. Thereupon the applicant filed Civ. Revn. Appln. No. 189 of 1955 in this Court in which it was prayed that this Court might, in the exercise of its powers of revision, set aside the order of the Civil Judge refusing to refer since a question as to the interpretation of the Constitution of India was involved.