PRAYAG KAPRI Vs. SHYAM LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is based on a mortgage bond for Rs. 98-8, dated the 29 of Baisak 1303 (corresponding to the 27 of April 1896), which was executed by the defendants and their mother in favour of the plaintiff.

(2.) At the trial in the Munsif's Court the defendants pleaded, first, full payment, secondly, that one of them had signed only a blank bond, and, thirdly, that the interest, 75 per cent., was exorbitant and by way of a penalty. The Munsif found the first two, pleas against the defendants, but allowed the third, and decreed the claim granting, interest on the mortgage sum at the rate fixed in the bond from the date of its execution, till the 15 of Pous 1304 only (that is, the 4 of January 1897) which was the date fixed in the bond for payment. He allowed interest at 18 per cent, per annum from that date till the date on which the suit was filed, and thereafter at six per cent, per annum till the date of realisation. On appeal the learned District Judge confirmed the Munsif's decree.

(3.) The plaintiff has now appealed and he takes three objections : first, that he is entitled to get interest at the rate agreed upon in the bond till the date of realisation; and thirdly, if not that, yet he is entitled to interest at the rate which the Munsif found reasonable till the date of realisation; and, thirdly, if not that, yet he is entitled to interest at that reasonable rate, till the date fixed in the decree for payment. According to Section 86 of the Transfer of Property Act, and the Privy Council decision in the case of Rameswar Koer V/s. Mahomed Mehdi Hossein Khan (1898) I.L.R. 26 Calc. 39 : L.R. 25 I.A. 179, the plaintiff is entitled to interest at the rate stipulated in the mortgage bond till the date fixed in the Munsif's decree for payment, unless the defendants can-show any special grounds why that should not be so.