G GORDON OBJECTOR Vs. ADMINISTRATOR GENERAL U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A Division Bench of the Court while hearing a Special Appeal from an order of a learned single Judge granting Letters of Administration to the Administrator General, in respect of the assets of one Alexender John, doubted the correctness of the decision in the case of Mt. Ram Kali v. Administrator General of U. P., AIR 1943 All 356 and referred the following question to a Full Bench.

(2.) THE Administrator General's Act 1913 (Act No. 3 of 1913) (hereinafter called the Act) is a consolidating Act relating to the office and duties of the Administrator General Subjection (2) of Section 2 of the Act defines "exempted person" as an Indian Christian, a Hindu, Mohammedan, Parsi or Buddhist or a person exempted under Section 332 of the Indian Succession Act, 1865, from the operation of that Act. Thus clearly an Indian Christian was an exempted person within the meaning of the Act. The term Indian Christian was also defined by sub-section (4) of Sec tion. 2 of tiiis Act as meaning a native of India who is or in good faith claims to be of unmixed Asiatic descent and who pro fesses any form of the Christian Religion. It may be of some interest to note that the Administrator General's Act of 1913 has now been repealed and replaced by the Administrator General's Act, 1963 (Act No. 45 of 1963). In the new Act there is no provision for "exempted person." Thus the question which has been referred in a way is now of mere academic interest and may not arise in future. At one stage during the course of the argument before us it was suggested at the Bar that the deceased Alexender John, regarding whose estate Letters of Administration were sought by the Administrator General, was an Angolo-Indian and not an Indian Chris tian. But that is a question which this Bench will not examine as the case before it is restricted to the question referred.

(3.) THEN follows Section 8 which runs thus:-