MRS. G. GORDON 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/s. : AIR1943All356 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. Sub -section (2) of Sec. 2 of the Act defines "exempted person" as an Indian Christian, a Hindu, Mohammedan, Parsi or Buddhist or a person exempted under Sec. 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. 2 of this Act as meaning a native of India who is or in good faith claims to be of unmixed Asiatic descent, and who professes 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 It may be of some interest to note that the Administrator General's Act of 1913 has now been repealed and replaced by the Administrator General's Act, 1963 (Act No. 45 of 1963).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 Christian. But that is a question which this Bench will not examine as the case before it is restricted to the question referred.

(3.) In the Act of 1913 in its Part III, rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the Administrator General are prescribed. Under Sec. 6 as regards the Administrator General of any State the High Court of that State would be deemed to be a Court of competent jurisdiction for the purpose of granting probate or letters of administration under any law for the time -being in force, wheresoever the estate to be administered were situate within such State. It would thus be seen that it is the High Court of a State which was constituted as the forum from which the Administrator General could seek the grant of Letters of Administration under any law for the time being in force to administer an estate situate within the territorial jurisdiction of the said High Court. Sec. 7 of the Act which has an important bearing on the question referred to us, may now be reproduced. It runs as follows: - -