AMAR NATH; GOKULCHAND Vs. HUKAM CHAND NATHU MAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This was a suit, brought to recover the principal amount of four Hundis, to which five persona were made defendants. The plaintiffs were successful in both Courts below, and their Lordships Board gave special leave to appeal to two of the defendants, but one only, Mr. Gokal Chand, now appears.

(2.) Sundry points connected with the validity of the Hundis and their presentation were pleaded by some of the defendants, but not by the appellant. It has been held in the Courts below, that as a matter of practice he was not entitled to avail himself on appeal of points which had not been raised by him below. Before their Lordships this decision was faintly contested, and they see no reason to doubt or to review it.

(3.) The real issue in the appeal is one of some importance. Joti Mal and his sons, of whom the appellant is one, constituted a joint Hindu family governed by the Mitakshara law, which carried on a joint ancestral business as moneylenders under the style of Nagar Mal-Joti Mai at Ferozepore, and the Hundis in question were given by this firm in the way of its business for Udebts due to the plaintiffs, who were near relatives. In the conduct of this business the appellant took no part. He was not privy to the debts iucurred. In his youth he was for seven years absent from India for the purpose of being specially trained in England for the Indian Civil Service. He succeeded in entering that service and, returning to India, was posted to the Central Provinces. At the commencement of the suit he was Joint Magistrate at Sitarpur and in receipt of the substantial emoluments of that office, but he has never severed himself from the joint family of which he became a member at his birth.