LAL PARI Vs. JANKI RAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from an order passed by the Subordinate Judge of Monghyr in an execution proceeding. The decree sought to be executed is a mortgage decree which was obtained by the respondent decree-holders against a number of persons including the appellant who is the purchaser of one out of four properties which are the subject-matter of the decree. The property in which the appellant is interested is the second property in a schedule which forms part of the decree and the decree provides that this property shall be sold last of all. The objection which was preferred by the appellant to the decree-holders application for execution was firstly that her property should not be sold along with other mortgaged properties, secondly, that no sale should be held unless all the properties were properly valued and thirdly that she should be allowed to pay by instalments such part of the decree as remains unsatisfied after the sale of the other three properties.

(2.) The learned Subordinate Judge in disposing of her objection has expressed the view that the Money-lenders Act has no application to the present case. The learned Judge has stated that the Moneylenders Act has been passed to give relief to the debtors and not to persons who with their eyes open purchase the property subject to a mortgage charge. In other words, the learned Judge was of the view that the Money-lenders Act had no application to the case merely because the appellant was a person other than the mortgagor and because she had purchased the property after the mortgage with notice thereof.

(3.) In my opinion this view is erroneous. The Money-lenders Act 7 of 1939 describes it as an Act "to provide for the regulation of money-lending transactions in the province of Bihar." This Act repeals the greater part of the Money-lenders Act of 1938 (Bihar Act 3 of 1938). The Preamble of that Act stated that the Act was passed, because it was expedient to regulate money-lending transactions and to grant relief to debtors in the province of Bihar. Neither of these Acts defines a debtor but in Section 2 of the present Act it is stated that the judgment-debtor includes a certificate debtor under the Bihar and Orissa Public Demands Recovery Act of 1914.