BANSILAL ABIRCHAND Vs. GHULAM MAHBUB KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment and decree dated September 27, 1922, of the Court of the Resident at Hyderabad, reversing a decree dated November 22, 1921, of the Assistant Resident there, and restoring, albeit, on other grounds, a decree made by the Civil Judge of Secunderabad, dated July 8,1919.

(2.) The suit was commenced by the appellant in the Court of that Judge in September 1911, Its purpose was to recover money lent by him so long ago as 1891 to the grandfather of the first respondent with repayment guaranteed, so it was alleged by the late Sir Asnam Jah, Prime Minister of Hyderabad, whose estate is represented in the suit by his son, the second respondent. The borrower, the alleged surety, and their respective representatives were, or are, all resident in Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam's dominious. The appellant, however, has a place of business at Secunderabad, a neighbouring British cantonment, and asserting that the loans were both made and repayable there, he claimed that his suit in respect of them was cognizable by the local British Court.

(3.) But this was not the appellant's only reason for invoking that jurisdiction-if he could successfully do so. In the Courts of the Nizam his demands had long since been barred by lapse of time. In the British Court, however, he claimed to be entitled to escape from the operation of the Indian Limitation Act-an Act otherwise entirely applicable to the case-on the ground that the residence of the defendant in Hydrabad was a foreign residence which took his claim against them outside the statute although their residence was in fact only six miles away.