TOSHANPAL SINGH Vs. DISTRICT JUDGE OF AGRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a decree and order of the Additional Subordinate Judge of Agra in favour of the plaintiffs-respondents. The plaintiffe-respondents are the members of the Committee of management of the Balwant Rajput High School Agra, and the defendants are the three sons of the late Thakur Dhyan Pal Singh, who was Secretary of that Committee. The circumstances that led tip to the suit were briefly these: In 1915 the Government made a grant of Rs. 90,000 to the Committee to be expended on the school on condition that the money should be placed in deposit with the Bank of Bengal and should not be utilised till schemes had been prepared (after consultation between the Managing Committee of the School and Government) to which the Committee and Government should have assented. The work was held up during the war but on the 16 of October, 1920, Dhyan Pal Singh, the Secretary of the Committee, represented to them that Rs. 60,000 of this grant had been invested in the three years War Loan the period of which had expired and that he had invested Rs. 50,000 in fixed deposit with the Bank of Bengal at 4 per cent, per annum and Rs. 10,000 in current account. He asked for the formal sanction of the Committee to this arrangement and further he asked for permission to operate on the account and to draw the money when necessary to meet the expenses of the brick kiln and the acquisition of other building materials. This was sanctioned by the Committee. It may be mentioned that Dhyan Pal Singh had drawn on the account before the sanction of the Committee was obtained and between the 23 of August, 1920, and the 25 of October, 1921, he drew in all by various cheques Rs. 60,685. On the 13 May, 1922, he represented to the Committee that the estimate for the proposed alterations and additions to the school building was about Rs 78,000 according to the current public works rate and that he could get the entire thing done at a cost of Rs. 60,000 if the Committee authorised him to do it. He further represented that the Committee had inhand the sum of Rs. 70,000. The Committee passed a resolution authorising him to put in hand the alterations subject to some modifications proposed by the Executive Engineer which Dhyan Pal Singh himself had put forward on condition that the total amount expended should not exceed Rs. 60,000.

(2.) From the 15 of May, 1922, to the 30 of January, 1923, Dhyan Pal Singh got the President of the Committee to countersign cheques for sums amounting in all to Rs. 21,597-3-2. It may be observed that there had been changes in the parson of the President of the Committee during these proceedings. Mr. T.K. Johnston, Mr. J.R.W. Bennett and Dr. E. Bonnet in turn assuming that office ex officio as District Judges of Agra. On the 7 November, 1922, Dhyan Pal Singh asked Dr. E. Bannet to countersign a cheque for Rs. 2,000. This was the first occasion on which Dr. Bennet had anything to do with the matter. He asked Dhyan Pal Singh for vouchers and Dhyan Pal Singh replied that he had not so far been required to submit any but that he would now submit accounts. Accounts of some kind were after some considerable delay submitted purporting to show that a sum of roughly Rs. 50.000 had been spent on the building. Before the matter was cleared up Dhyan Pal Singh died on the 30 of May, 1923. Meanwhile several matters had been arousing the suspicions of Dr. Bannet who happened to be away from Agra when Dhyan Pal Singh died and on his return finding that no cash balance had been left by Dhyan Pal Singh and that the large sums which that gentleman had drawn had not been properly accounted for he applied for an official audit of Dhyan Pal Singh's accounts and as a result of that audit the present suit was filed by the Committee on the 29 of May, 1925. No allegation was made against Dhyan Pal Singh's sons personally but it was maved that they should be made to pay a sum of Rs. 85,863-4-2 or whatever might be found due "from the property left by Thakur Dhyan Pal Singh and also out of the joint family property in their hands." The Subordinate Judge after appointing an expert to value the work done, for he found Dhyan Pal Singh's accounts untrustworthy, decided that a sum of Rs. 48,143-1-2 was due and he gave a decree for this amount without past interest.

(3.) The Subordinate Judge has calculated that this sum of Rs. 48,143-1-2 represented the balance which Dhyan Pal Singh; had not accounted for by deducting the value of the buildings (as calculated by Mr. Daly the expert) viz, Rs. 35,454-2-0 from the total sum which Dhyan Pal Singh had realised from the Committee on account of the building which according to the Subordinate Judge came to Rs. 83,597-3 2.