BHUPENDRA SINGH Vs. THAKUR GULAB SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a civil regular first appeal by the defendant Mangalsingh in a suit for recovery of money which has been partly decreed by the District Judge, Jaipur City, by his judgment dated the 23rd December, 1957, for a sum of Rs. 6618-7-3, The appellant having died during the pendency of the appeal in this Court is now represented by his son Bhupendra Singh.

(2.) The facts in so far as they are relevant for the decision of this appeal lie within a narrow compass. It is admitted before us that there were money dealings between the defendant Mangal Singh's father Baneysingh who was a jagirdar of Thikana Barnala in the former State of Jaipur and the plaintiff's father Bhursingh commencing from 1933. On the 10th July, 1942, Baney Singh went into accounts with Bhursingh and found that a sum of Rs. 7540-14-6 was due by him to the latter and signed the Khata Ex. 21 in lieu thereof. It is further common ground between the parties that Baney Singh died some time in the early part of 1943 as a result of which his Jagir was placed under the management of the Court of Wards of the Jaipur State. In pursuance of a notification issued by the Court of Wards under S. 18 of the Jaipur Court of Wards Act, 1925 (hereinafter called the Act of 1925), Bhursingh instituted a claim for the amount due to him before the Court of Wards on the 3rd April, 1943. The Court of Wards accepted the claim for Rs. 6618-11-3 which was the principal amount due to Bhursingh from Baneysingh and rejected the rest of the claim which consisted of interest.

(3.) The defendant resisted the suit on a number of pleas but the only pleas out of these which it is material to mention for the purposes of the present appeal are (1) that the suit was barred by limitation and (2) that the document Ex. P-21 upon which it was based was a pure and simple acknowledgment and consequently no suit could be founded on it.