GADADHAR BHATTA Vs. SARAT CHANDRA MUKHERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the defendant against the decision of the learned Subordinate Judge of the second Court of Chinsura, dated the 22nd November 1913. The suit was one for the recovery of certain rent due under a durpatni. The original plaintiffs were two Hindu ladies named Srimati Dulari Debi and Srimati Peari Debi, widows and heiresses of one Beni Madhab Das, who was a disqualified proprietor and whose estate had been taken charge of by the Court of Wards of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and represented by the Collector of Mirzapur.

(2.) During the pendency of the suit, the Collector acting under the Court of Wards sold the property, of which rent is claimed, to the present plaintiffs and the present plaintiffs were substituted in place of the two widows. The case as opened by the learned Vakil for the appellant showed a long and complicated title; but it is not necessary to go through all or the whole chain of title that was set out in the opening. It is sufficient to say that, on the 8th January 188.1, a patni was granted of the property by Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore in favour of one Bibi Jarao Kumari. On the 27th March 1892, Bibi Jarao Kumari granted a durpatni in favour of one Madan Mohan Bhatta. The present defendant admittedly represents Madan Mohan. The only question in this case is do the plaintiffs represent Bibi Jarao Kumari in the patni which was granted by Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore on the 8th January 1881." Beni Madhab Das purchased the interest of this lady Bibi Jarao Kumari at a sale in execution of a money-decree on the 17th April 1905. Subsequently Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore, acting under the Patni Regulation, brought the property to sale and purchased it himself. After a long and complicated litigation, that sale was set aside. So the title remained in Beni Madhab Das, subject to certain mortgages which were held by the plaintiffs. On the 14th of July 1909, Beni Madhab Das made over charge of his estate to the Court of Wards of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The application and the assumption of charge by the Court of Wards were made under the provisions of Section 9 of the Act. Beni Madhab died on the 31st October 1911 and the property was acquired, by the present plaintiffs on the 17th May 1912. The present suit was institutld on the 15th April 1912 in the name of the two widows of Beni Madhab acting through the Collector of Mirzapur and the substitution of the present plaintiffs was made on the 12th July 1912.

(3.) The first question that has been urged in this appeal is that the Court of Wards of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh has no jurisdiction to deal with the property of a disqualified proprietor situated outside the limits of the territories subject to the Lieutenant- Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The argument, though bold, I am satisfied, on the wording of the Statute, has no foundation. The section relating to the matter is Section 15. That section enacts that the whole of the moveable and immoveable property of a ward should be deemed to be under the superintendence of the Court of Wards." Now, what are the words in the Statute that cut down the clear words, the whole of the moveable and immoveable property." First of all, it is said that it is an Act passed by the Legislative Council of the Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and that, therefore, the words "the whole of the moveable and immoveable property" in the section must be deemed to mean the whole of the moveable and immoveable property within the territorial jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. That manifestly is not the meaning. The Lieutenant-Governor of Agra and Oudh has got no authority to legislate for persons residing outside the limits of the Provinces of Agra and Oudh and to regulate the superintendence of their properties. It is quite true that the Statute does not deal with cases in which a person has got property outside the limits of the Provinces of Agra and Oudh; but if the disqualified proprietor has got property within the limits of the Provinces of Agra and Oudh so that the Court of Wards of those Provinces may take charge of his property, then there is nothing in the words of the Statute to cut down the perfectly general words of Section 15, in which it is enacted that the whole of the moveable and immoveable property of the disqualified proprietor should become subject to the superintendence of the Court of Wards. Take, for instance, the case of a disqualified proprietor residing in Agra with a heavy deposit in the Bank of Bengal in Calcutta. It is suggested that because the Bank of Bengal in Calcutta is outside the limits of the territory subject to the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra, the Court of Wards at Lucknow or Allahabad has no jurisdiction to deal with the money lying to the credit of the disqualified proprietor in Calcutta. Such a proposition is manifestly unsound. As Section 15 makes no distinction at all between moveable and immoveable property, it is quite clear that properties both within the limits of the Provinces of Agra and Oudh as well as outside thereof are subject to the administration set up by the Act in the event of a person coming under the terms of the Act. It is said that there would be a conflict between the Court of Wards of the Presidency of Bengal and the Court of Wards established in the United Provinces. It seems to me that there cannot be any conflict at all. If the Court of Wards of Bengal had taken charge of the property, of course, the acts of the Court of Wards of the United Provinces would have been subject to any local legislation that might be passed, or established by the Government of Bengal. It seems to me quite clear on the section that the words used therein must bear their ordinary signification and that the expression the whole of the moveable and immoveable property of the ward" means what it says and is not limited to the moveable and immoveable property situated within the limits of the territories subject to the Lieutenant- Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.