(1.) This case conies before their Lordships upon special leave to appeal, by which the question to be discussed was very carefully limited. In December, 1907, the kartas of the six branches of a Hindu joint family, of which the present defendants were members, executed a mortgage bond in favour of the present respondents for a principal sum of 12,000 rupees, with interest at \\ per cent, per mensem, that is, fifteen per cent, per annum, with the provision that if the interest was not paid year by year it should be treated as principal and compound interest at the same rate should be charged up to the date of payment.
(2.) The suit was commenced in 1919, when a large sum had accumulated due, since no interest had been paid at all; 37,000 rupees were then outstanding. It was for the purpose of realizing the security, and the answer made by the members of the joint family, who defended it, was both that the money was not borrowed for necessity; that the terms, namely, the rate of interest and the rests and the compound interest were not justified by necessity; and therefore that it was not within the authority of the kartas to impose this burden upon the property, in which they were interested.
(3.) By the terms of the leave given, the argument is confined to the latter point, that is, whether the terms as to rate of interest, rests, and simple or compound interest were in excess of the kartas authority or not.