BENARES BANK, LIMITED Vs. PRIYA DAS PITAM CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal and the connected appeal No. 582 of 1926 have arisen out of two independent suits, but the parties in them are the same except for this that in the suit out of which the appeal 582 of 1926 has arisen, there was an additional defendant in the firm of Bahadur Mull Priya Das.

(2.) The facts in the two cases being similar, they may be decided by the same judgment. The facts, briefly, are these. The firm of Ganesh Lal Har Bilas of Agra drew one batch of ten hundis on 28 May 1924, and another batch of five hundis on 12 June 1924 each of the fifteen being for Rs. 1,000. The same firm draw another hundi for the sum of Rs. 2,500 on 29 July 1928. In each of these 16 hundis, the drawees were the firm of Priya Das Pitam Chand of Delhi and the persons in whose favour the hundis were drawn were Jangi Lal Debi Prasad, a firm of Agra. Jangi Lal Debi Prasad endorsed the hundi in favour of the Benares Bank Limited in the case of the 15 hundis of Rs. 1,000 each and the Benares Bank sent the same to the Mercantile Bank of India of Delhi for collection. The hundi of Rs. 2,500 passed through another hand before it reached the Benares Bank Limited and in this case the endorser was the firm of Bahadur Mull Priya Das who obtained the hundi from the original holders.

(3.) The two suits were brought by the Benares Bank against all the parties to the hundi. In the suit 338 of 1925 which was based on the 15 hundis of Rs, 1,000 each the firm of Priya Das Pitam Chand alone were the contesting defendants. In the other suit which was based on the hundi for Rs. 2,500 (No. 326 of 1925) the contesting defendants were Priya Das Pitam Chand and Bahadur Mull Priya Das.