KRISHNAPAL 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 plaintiff-respondents. The plaintiff-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 up 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 utilized 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 16 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 23 August 1920 and 25 October 1921. he drew in all by various cheques Rs. 60,685. On 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 authorized him to do it. He further represented that the committee had in hand the sum of Rs. 70,000. The committee passed a resolution authorizing 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 15 May 1922 to 30 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 person of the president of the committee during these proceedings, Mr. T.K. Johnston, Mr. J.R.W. Bennett and Dr. E. Bennet in turn assuming that office ex officio as District Judges of Agra. On 7 November 1922 Dhyan Pal Singh asked Dr. B. Bennet 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 30 May 1923. Meanwhile several matters had been arousing the suspicions of Dr. Bennet 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 29 May 1925. No allegation was made against Dhyan Pal Singh's sons personally but it was prayed that they should be made to pay a sum of Rs. 86,863-4-2 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.

(3.) 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.