SHYAM SUNDAR PADHI Vs. INDRAMONI DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE judgment debtors in a compromise decree for maintenance are the appellants before as.

(2.) THE decree provided that the judgment. debtors should pay maintenance to the decreeholder at the rate of Rs. 6 a month and in case of default of payment of the allowance for six consecutive months the judgment -debtors shall be liable to pay maintenance at Rs. 12 a month. The judgment -debtors defaulted payment for six months consecutively and the decree, holder assigned his decree to opposite parties 1 and 2 (respondents). When the decree was put in execution, the judgment -debtors (appellants) raised several objections one of which has been debated before as. The contention of the judgment -debtors is that the stipulation embodied in the compromise decree, to the effect that the judgment -debtors shall pay double the monthly maintenance allowance in case of default for six consecutive months, is in the nature of a penal class and cannot be enforced in execution.

(3.) TURNING now to the language of the Civil Procedure Code we find that Order 23, Rule 3 lays down as to how the compromise of a suit is to be recorded. It says :