DHANPATI AND ORS. Vs. GURPRIT SINGH AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs suit for redeeming the mortgage which is said to have been executed in the year 1854 came to be decreed by the two courts below. The representatives of the mortgagee are in appeal before this court to contend that the civil suit is not competent to grant any decree since the mortgage executed before 1901 comes under the provision of the Punjab Restitution of Mortgaged Lands Act, 1938 (for short 'the Act'). The Act provides for a provision for appeal against the order of a Collector before a Commissioner and a further right of revision to the Financial Commissioner. It is contended that the suit is incompetent and the remedy of action shall be only under the Act. I reject this argument as untenable, for, the only ground on which the suit seeking for redemption of mortgage could be dismissed, is when the mortgage is extinguished by operation of law or by specific order passed under the Act that the mortgage extinguished. Sec. 12 of the Act is the governing provision for the jurisdiction of the Civil Court. Sec. 12 of the Act reads as under: - -