RAJA DEBI BAKHSH SINGH Vs. SHADI LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY Section 162 of the Oudh Land Revenue Act XVII of 1876, certain persons are declared to be disqualified from managing their estates. Among the enumeration of those persons are the following: Under Sub-section (a), "Persons declared by the Chief Commissioner on their own application to be disqualified from managing their estates." The Talukdar of Mallanpur was one of those persons. On his application, his estates were assumed by the Court of Wards, and they remained under the management of that Court from the year 1886 until the year 1898.

(2.) DURING that period the Raja borrowed certain sums of money; and on the 12th August 1904 his creditors sued and obtained a personal decree against him in the Court of first instance. There were certain judicial proceedings which occurred subsequent to the decree; and it may be of interest to note that, the debt incurred having been originally a sum of Rs. 4,000, execution is now sought to be obtained against the property put under the management of the Court of Wards for a sum which, at a date somewhat anterior to the present deliverance, amounted to Rs. 21,526, the interest having been running for a certain course of years at the rate of 18 per cent. per annum.

(3.) THE sections of the Oudh Land Revenue Act, to which reference has been made, are Sections 173 and 174. Section 173 is in these terms: Persons whose property is under the superintendence of the Court of Wards shall not be competent to create without the sanction of the Court, any charge upon or interest in such property, or any part thereof." Section 174 says: "No such property shall be liable to be taken in execution of a decree made in respect of any contract entered into by any such person while his property is under such superintendence." Their Lordships think that it falls to be observed that the object of these sections was the protection of the property against either transactions entered into by the person under tutelage by way of direct transactions of sale or of mortgage, and also the protection of the property against the consequences of any execution in respect of contracts entered into by a person under such tutelage. Section 174 deals with the latter situation.