GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN COUNCIL Vs. JAGANNATH SUKA GOND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ONE Suka, an employee of the Bengal Nagpur Railway Company, died in March 1939 leaving at the time a sum of money to his credit in the Railway Provident Fund. His nominee to receive the payment of the whole amount after his death was his elder brother Tatya. A suit was brought by Suka's widow and by her son, aged nine, acting through his mother as next friend, against the Bengal Nagpur Railway, against the Station Master, Gondia, and against Tatya on the allegation that under the terms of the Provident Funds Act of 1925 she and her son as dependants rather than the elder brother as nominee were entitled to receive the amount at the credit of the deceased, that Tatya had in fact, by a document addressed to the Chief Auditor of the Company, relinquished his claim to the amount and lastly that Tatya had nevertheless contrived to receive the sum in conspiracy with the Station Master of Gondia. There were also other allegations with which we are not here concerned.

(2.) THE trial Court held that there was no evidence of any conspiracy, that in law the payment was to be made to the elder brother who alone was entitled to it but that as he had relinquished his claim by an assignment made in the widow's favour, he was bound to pay her the amount. The Railway Company was held not to be liable as it was not established that the Chief Auditor had received the notice of relinquishment and transfer which Tatya had made, and the principle on which the suit was decreed against Tatya alone was that the assignor had realised the amount after he had made an assignment and that consequently he ought to make good the amount to his assignee.

(3.) THE relevant sections of the Provident Funds Act are Section 8(2) and Section 4(1), omitting the proviso. They run as follows : Section 3(2): Any sum standing to the credit of any subscriber to, or depositor in any such Fund at the time of his decease and payable under the rules of the Fund to any dependant of the subscriber or depositor, or to such person as may be authorised by law to receive payment cm his behalf, shall, subject to any deduction authorised by this Act and save where the dependant is the widow or child of the subscriber or depositor, subject also to the rights of an assignee under an assignment made before the commencement of this Act, vest in the dependant, and shall, subject as aforesaid, be free from any debt or other liability incurred by the deceased or incurred by the dependant before the death of the subscriber or depositor. Section 4(1):