MT TAMIJANNESSA KHATUN Vs. PURNA CHANDRA CHAKRAVARTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two rules relate to two suits for rent which were decreed ex parte on the 24th March 1926, The defendant applied under Order 9, Rule 13 for setting aside the said ex-parte decrees and prayed for exemption from making the deposit necessary to be made under Section 153A, Bengal Tenancy Act. The Subordinate Judge refused to grant the exemption and ordered the decretal amounts to be deposited within seven days, and on the defendant failing to comply with the order rejected his petitions. The defendants thereupon moved this Court and obtained these rules.

(2.) The petitioner's contention in these rules is to the effect that as she had never admitted that any amount is due from her to the decree-holder no deposit is necessary. In support of this contention reference has been made to the observations of the Select Committee which considered the bill which was eventually embodied in Section 153A, Bengal Tenancy Act ( Section 47, Act 1, B.C., 1907 and Act 1, E.B.C. 1908) and reliance has also been placed on certain decisions to some of which I shall presently refer.

(3.) To construe the provisions of the section it is hardly permissible to refer to the report of the Select Committee, but if it is, I may point out that while the report refers to Secs.149 and 150, Bengal Tenancy Act, which provides for payment in cases of amounts which are admitted, it also refers to Section 17, Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887, which provides for the deposit of the amount due under the decree, irrespective of any such admission. The observations of the Select Committee taken as a whole do not support the petitioner's contention.