LAWS(P&H)-1955-10-5

MANOHAR LAL KANHAYA LAL Vs. LALA RAM NATH

Decided On October 31, 1955
MANOHAR LAL KANHAYA LAL Appellant
V/S
LALA RAM NATH Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a judgment-debtor's appeal against an appellate order of the Senior Subordinate Judge of Delhi dated 31-3-1955 upholding the order of the trial Court and ordering the eviction of the appellants.

(2.) The landlords in this case brought a suit for ejectment of the appellants and for recovery of arrears of rent. The trial Court passed a conditional decree that if within a month of the passing of the decree the judgment-debtors pay the arrears of rent, then the suit for ejectment would be dismissed. This decree was passed on 4-2-1954 and the amount was deposited in Court on 6-3-1954. The landlords pleaded that the condition not having been fulfilled they were entitled to get the tenants evicted; and the tenants in defence raised two points that they tendered money on 3-3-1955 which was within the month allowed. There was no prayer for extension of time in the executing Court but it was prayed for in the appellate Court. Both the contentions made by the tenants were negatived by the Court below.

(3.) The petitioners now raise two points that a month in a decree should be read as a lunar month.and connotes a period of thirty days and not a calendar month. He relies on an English judgment, -- 'Bruner v. Moore', (1951) 1 Ch. 305 (A), where it was held that in legal documents the primary meaning of a month is a lunar month. In that case the document was an agreement by which the inventor gave an option to purchase within a period of six months the patent rights. This judgment has been followed in India in -- 'South British Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Braja Nath', 36 Cal 516 (B). At page 535 Maclean C. J. said;