RAJA RAMA Vs. FAKURUDDIN SAHIB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal raises the question whether a suit to recover money due on promissory notes against the defendants who are the sons, widows and a daughter of the deceased executant of the notes is barred by limitation.

(2.) It appears that the two notes in question were executed by one Hajee Imamuddin on the 10 January, 1917 and on the 21 February, 1918, for Rs. 1,600 and Rs. 300, respectively. Imamuddin died in 1919. The plaintiff filed his suit against the defendants on 4 September, 1923, to recover the amount due on the notes. The suit was, therefore, out of time unless, in the meanwhile, there had been an effectual acknowledgment of the liability so as to give a fresh starting point for limitation. It is alleged by the plaintiff, who is the appellant before us, that such an acknowledgment is to be found in a petition filed in this Court on the 9 October, 1919, for a grant of letters of administration, by defendants 1, 2 and 3, of whom defendants 1 and 2 are sons and defendant 3 a widow of the deceased executant of the notes. It is material to observe that Section 278, Indian Succession Act, 1925, requires that a petitioner for letters of administration shall state in his application, inter alia, the right in which the petitioner claims; and Section 218 (1), Indian Succession Act, provides that If the deceased has died intestate and was a...Muhammadan... administration of his estate may be granted to any person who, according to the rules for the distribution of the estate applicable in the case of such deceased, would he entitled to the whole or any part of such deceased's estate.

(3.) The petitioners here, being the sons and widow of the deceased, were the persons entitled by Muhammadan Law to the estate, or at least a part of the deceased's estate, and were in consequence entitled to the grant, and a joint grant of administration was in due course made to them. They, as required by the Court Fees Act, filed with their petition for a grant the form of valuation prescribed by Schedule III of the Act, stating in Annexure A the assets of which the deceased was possessed or to which he was entitled at the time of his death, and in Annexure B the "debts owing from the deceased and payable by law out of the estate". Among these debts were shown the amounts due on the two promissory notes above referred to. This valuation form on affidavit of assets is required for the purpose of assessing the Court-fee payable in respect of the grant of letters of administration, and until the appropriate fee has been paid no grant can be issued. The question before us is whether the inclusion of the debts in Annexure B amounts to an acknowledgment of liability in respect of the debt so as to extend the period of limitation for the plaintiff's suit.