V RAMASWAMI AIYANGAR Vs. DORAISAMI VANDAYAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these cases the only question of law that arises for consideration is whether it is incumbent upon the petitioners who are receivers appointed by the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Devakotta to the estate of the deceased R.M.Ar. Ar.Rm. Arunachalam Chettiar to obtain succession certificates before claiming decrees in the suits filed by them against certain debtors of the estate. It is conceded that these debts are all due under promissory notes executed in favour of the deceased person. In a litigation that arose after the death of the deceased, the petitioners were appointed receivers with express authority to sue in their own names as they have done in these suits and realise the outstandings. The Court below has arrived at the conclusion that succession certificates are necessary in view of the provisions of Section 214 of the Indian Succession Act. Because such certificates were not produced within the time allowed to the petitioners by the lower Court the suits have all been dismissed.

(2.) Since the point involved in these cases affects Government revenue, notice was ordered to the Government Pleader who has appeared along with the respondent's advocate in opposing these petitions.

(3.) Mr. Rajah Aiyar, the learned advocate for the petitioners in all these cases relies strongly upon the wording of Section 214 (1) (a) of the Indian Succession Act. This section states that without a succession certificate No Court shall pass a decree against a debtor of a deceased person for payment of his debt to a person claiming on succession to be entitled to the effects of the deceased person or to any part thereof. He contends that after the amendment of this section by the incorporation of the words "on succession" there cannot be any doubt that it is only where a person claims to be entitled to the effects of a deceased person on succession that the provisions of the section can apply. In the present case, he argues that the receivers are officers of Court appointed with special authority to sue in their own names as also in the names of the parties. As already stated these suits were all filed in the names of the receivers and in the circumstances it cannot be said according to the petitioners learned advocate that the receivers are persons claiming "on succession" to be entitled to the effects of the deceased. Reliance is placed by him also on Harihar Mukerji V/s. Harendra Nath Mukerji (1910) I.L.R. 37 Cal. 754, which has been followed in Anil Chandra V/s. Indian Economic Insurance Company I.L.R. (1941) 2 Cal. 221. In the former case the question of the liability of a receiver to obtain a succession certificate before successfully suing the debtors to the estate represented by him was considered and the view taken is entirely in support of the petitioners case. Mr. Rajah Aiyar also points out that that was a decision pronounced prior to the amendment to Section 214 by the addition of the words "on succession" in Clause (1) (a). The amendment makes the position stronger still.