ADMINISTRATOR-GENERAL Vs. PREM LAL MULLICK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) NUNDO Lal Mullick, a wealthy Hindu resident in Calcutta, died in February, 1891, leaving a last will by which he disposed of his whole estate Teal and personal, and appointed Dwarka Nath Bhonjo and Sumbhoo Nath Roy to be his executors and trustees. These gentlemen accepted the office thus conferred on them; and, in March 1891, they obtained a grant of probate from the High Court at Calcutta, and proceeded to administer the trusts of the will. On the 14th of August, 1893, they executed a deed by which they transferred the whole estates, effects, and interests vested in them by virtue of the said probate to the Appellant, the Administrator-General of Bengal, professedly in terms of Section 31 of the Administrator-General's Act, 1874 (Act No. II. of 1874).

(2.) THE clause in question enacts that "any private executor or administrator may, with the previous consent of the Administrator-General of the presidency in which the property comprised in the probate or letters of administration is situate, by an instrument in writing under his hand, hearing a stamp of ten rupees and notified in the local Gazette, transfer all estates, effects and interests vested in him by virtue of such probate or letters to the Administrator-General by his name of office."

(3.) IT is not matter of dispute that, if the executors and trustees of the late Nundo Lal Mullick are within the class of persons empowered by Section 31 to devolve their administrative functions upon the Administrator-General, the transfer was properly executed and notified, and must receive effect. The only question raised and discussed in the Courts below, and in the course of this appeal, has been, whether the transferors, as the executors and trustees of a deceased Hindu, are private executors within the meaning of the clause.