PRAFULLA KUMAR MUKHERJEE Vs. BANK OF COMMERCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS group of cases and those which immedately follow necessitate a consideration of the principle upon which the respective jurisdictions of the Federal and Provincial legislatures in India are to be delimited and of the method to be adopted in determining the subjects which are to be dealt with by the one or the other under the provisions of Sections 99 and 100 of the Government of India Act, 1935, and the three lists set out in the Seventh Schedule thereto.

(2.) THE question immediately in dispute is as to the validity of the Bengal Money-lenders Act, 1940. By way of introduction it is enough to say that that Act limits the amount recoverable by a moneylender on his loans for principal and interest and prohibits the payment of sums larger than those permitted by the Act.

(3.) THE proceedings began in 1941, 1942 and 1948, but are concerned with loans made at a much earlier date not by the respondents but by the Khulna Loan Company or the Khulna Loan Bank. In every case the loans were secured by promissory notes executed contemporaneously with the transaction.