RAM LAL MOOKERJEE Vs. HARAN CHANDRA DHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this plaint interest is not asked for only the principal is claimed. The promissory note is as follows:--

(2.) Hindu law did certainly, as between Hindus, restrict the rate of interest to be charged; and I do not think that Act XXVIII of 1855 was ever intended to repeal the Hindu or Mohammedan law as to interest. That Act is entitled "an Act for the repeal of the usury laws," and it recites that "whereas it is expedient to repeal the laws now in force relating to usury, it is enacted as follows: and in section I, it is said, section XXX of the Act of Parliament passed in the thirteenth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George III, instituted 'an Act for establishing certain regulations for the better management of the affairs of the East India Company as well in India as in Europe,' shall not apply in any part of the territories in the possession and under the Government of the said Company to any bond contract or assurance whatsoever which shall be made or entered into within the said territories after the passing of this Act; and the several parts of regulations mentioned in the schedule hereto annexed, and all laws in force in any part of the said territories relating to usury are hereby repealed." That Act did no more than repeal the various Regulations and Acts which the English Government of India had passed on the subject of usury.

(3.) In Colebrooke's Digest, I find the following texts : Book I, Chapter 2, section I, clause 23 : "A lender of money may take in addition to his capital the interest allowed by Vasishtha, an eightieth part of a hundred by the month." Clause 24 Vasishtha: "Here the interest for a money-lender declared by the words of Vasishtha, five mashas or one suverna for 20 palas, or 80 suvernas he may claim, and should receive each month; then the law is not violated." Clause 26, Vrihaspati quoted in the Retnakara : "The eightieth part accrues monthly in the principal, and if the interest be received, the loan is doubtless doubled in the third-of-a-year less than seven years, that is in six years and eight months." Clause 29, Menu; If he have no pledge, a lender of money may take two in the hundred by the month, remembering the duty of good men, for by their taking two in the hundred he becomes not a sinner for gain."