SAWANTRAWA FAKIRAPPA BALLURWAD Vs. GIRIAPPA FAKIRAPPA MUDRADDI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit was instituted by the plaintiff for redemption of certain property, which she alleged had been mortgaged by her husband to the defendants by a document, which though in form a sale was in reality a mortgage. In order to prove that she was a mortgagor it would be necessary for her to give evidence of the intention of the parties at the time of the transaction, namely in the year 1899, and to show 1 that that intention was not expressed in the deed. This she could not do under the provisions of Section 92 of the Indian Evidence Act. But if she was enabled to avail herself of the provisions of Section 10A of the Dekkhan Agriculturists Relief Act she could give the proof that she desired.

(2.) The suit was brought in the Dharwar District, to which the provisions of the Dekkhan Agriculturists Relief Act were extended in the year 1905. Section 10A enables the Court to inquire into the real nature of the transaction in issue, provided that the agriculturist, who was a party to the suit, claiming the benefit of the Act, was an agriculturist at the time of the transaction, (in this case, in the year 1899). It is argued that " agriculturist " in the proviso to Section 10A must not be read by the light of the statutory definition, but must be interpreted in the general and popular sense, and that in |hat sense the mortgagor was earning a living by agriculture, and therefore falls within the proviso.

(3.) The difficulty is that Section 2 is peremptory. It provides that in construing this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context, the following rule should be observed, namely, "agriculturist" shall be taken to mean a person who by himself or by his servants or by his tenants earns his livelihood wholly or principally by agriculture carried on within the limits of a district or part of a district to which this Act may for the time being extend, or who ordinarily engages personally in agricultural labour within those limits.