SHAM SUNDAR SINGH Vs. DHIRENDRA NATH CHANDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is by the judgment-debtor arising out of an objection under Section 47, Civil P. C.

(2.) This appeal was analogous to several other appeals but we directed that, as the execution case which gave rise to the present appeal was being held up this appeal should be heard and disposed of. It was accordingly placed for hearing before us. It relates to Execution case No. 547 of 1946, and our observations will have to be confined to that execution case alone.

(3.) It appears that the plaintiffs decree-holders obtained on 29th February 1932, a decree in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Dhanbad in Money suit No. 261 of 1930 which was later confirmed on appeal by this Court on 25th August 1936. The decree-holders proceeded to execute this decree by sale of certain properties belonging to the judgment-debtor. The case appears to have a long and chequered history, and it is one of those cases which demonstrate how a decree obtained in 1932 has yet remained unexecuted for all these 18 years on account of the various obstructions successfully raised by the judgment-debtor under cover of legal procedure. The execution case was started and registered on 18th November 1935 and a writ of attachment was issued. The claim under execution was for a sum of over one lakh of rupees. It appears from the order sheet that several times writs of attachment and sale proclamations were issued and on several occasions on one pretext or another the judgment-debtor succeeded in having the sale postponed. The present objection which was filed not until 3rd February 1948, was registered as Miscellaneous Case No. 9 of 1948. In this objection for the first time it was alleged that the properties under execution were not saleable as being part of a Government ghatwali. The petition alleges that the estate of the judgment-debtor is known as the Pandra Estate and consists of tauzi Nos. 21 and 23 of the Manbhum Collectorate, that parts of Tauzi No. 21 had been attached and advertised for sale on 17th February 1948, and that the said tauzi being Government ghatwali was inalienable and could not be sold in execution. The petition further states that Tauzi No. 23 of the petitioner's estate was sold in execution of a decree in Execution case No. 335 of 1931. The judgment-debtor then filed a title suit in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Dhanbad being Title suit No. 41 of 1939 in which he claimed that the Pandra Estate was a Government ghatwali. The suit was, however, dismissed by the learned Subordinate Judge, and against the said decree an appeal has been preferred to this Court which is First Appeal No. 87 of 1947. The judgment-debtor accordingly prayed that his objection should be allowed and the property should be released from atta hment and sale. As I have said, this objection was filed for the first time in February 1948. Though the execution case had been pending since 1935 and the judgment-debtor had appeared and had taken various steps in the execution proceedings and filed objections to the execution, in none of it he ever raised the contention which he seeks to advance in the present objection.