SHEIKH ABDUL RABBANI Vs. SHYAM LAL THAPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners who have obtained this Rule were the defendants in a suit for recovery of a sum of Rs. 475-10-0, Rs. 364 being the amount of principal and the remainder of the interest due at the rate of one anna per rupee per mensem. On account of the loan there was a promissory note which was not properly stamped and so not admissible in evidence. The defence was that only Rs. 64 had been taken as loan on the aforesaid rate of interest The suit having been decreed in plaintiffs favour the defendants have obtained this Rule.

(2.) Two of the grounds on which the Rule was issued contain allegation as to refusal on the part of the learned Judge to receive evidence that was tendered by the petitioner. The allegations have been denied by the learned Judge and are false. In such circumstances the petitioners can no longer legitimately expect that this Court would exercise its revisional jurisdiction, even if the decision of the trial Court be not strictly in accordance with law.

(3.) As, however, a pure point of law has been argued under cover of the other two grounds of the Rule, I proceed to express my view on it. It is said that as the promissory note was inadmissible on the ground that it was not duly stamped no oral evidence could be given of the transaction and so the suit should have been dismissed. It is said also that even if the suit is held to be maintainable upon the basis of a contract independently of the promissory note, the plaintiffs were not entitled to recover any interest.