GREGSON Vs. UDOY ADITYA DEB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE plaintiff seeks specific performance of an agreement under very peculiar circumstances. The agreement, at first oral, was afterwards reduced to writing. At that time the defendant, who is the zemindar of Patkum in Chota Nagpore, was subject to the operation of Act VI of 1876, passed to relieve the owners of encumbered estates in that district. The transactions between him and the plaintiff were intended to release him from that restraint, and had the effect of doing so. When released he continued to deal with the plaintiff on the footing of the agreement. And the question is whether he has thereby rendered himself liable to a decree for specific performance.

(2.) THE defendant's estate was put under management on his own application in July 1879. He is a man in middle life and of at least average mental capacity. But during the management he was placed under legal disability, which continued until his estate was released in the year 1884. By September 1884 his debts, which in 1879 were about Rs. 26,000, were reduced to Rs. 7,639.

(3.) IN the early part of the year 1884 the plaintiff and defendant were in negotiation for a lease of the Patkum estate, by the latter to the former, but it was not till the month of September that the defendant would offer terms acceptable to the plaintiff. On the 5th of that month the defendant presented the following petition to Mr. Clay, the Deputy Commissioner in the Encumbered Estates Department: Petition of Maharaj Udoy Aditya Deb, inhabitant of Ichagurh, Pergunnah Patkum, is to the following effect: For the liquidation of my debts and for the improvement of my estate, my ancestral zamindari, pergunnah Patkum, in zillah Manbhum, is under the management of the Encumbered Estates Department under Act VI of 1876. Considering that there would be a great improvement in my zamindari if I let out the same in ijara to Mr. C. B. Gregson, I made a proposal to grant that ijara settlement at a rent of Rs. 16,441-18-6, and to take a loan of Rs. 40,000 within three months from this date for the purpose of discharging my liabilities to the mahajuns. As the aforesaid Saheb Bahadoor agreed to those proposals, so preparing a draft of the ijara pottah, determining in grant the ijara settlement to the aforesaid Saheb for a period of nineteen years from the beginning of the present year 1291 up to the year 1309, 1 have been filing it along with this petition; and I pray that receiving from the aforesaid Saheb Bahadoor the amount of my liabilities in the account of the Encumbered Estates, you will kindly pass an order for releasing the mehal from the management under Act VI. On the release of the aforesaid mehal from the Encumbered Estates management I shall properly grant the pottah andreceivo the kabuliat according to the draft filed along with it, and separately execute registered bonds, and receive Rs. 15,000 for the present. The money that will be deposited by the aforesaid Saheb Bahadoor in the Encumbered Estates Department shall he credited against the rent of the ijara mehal for the present year. If on the release of the mehal I delay the granting of the ijara, then the aforesaid Sabeb Bahadoor shall be able to take possession of the aforesaid mehal in ijara right and to get the pottah executed according to the draft filed along with it. As the property is under the control of the Encumbered Estates Department, I am now incompetent to grant the aforesaid settlement. I therefore pray that your worship will release the aforesaid mehal from the control of the Encumbered Estates Department. The ijara pottah and kabuliat will have to be executed on stamped papers, and at that time I shall enter the boundaries in the same. At present a draft only being prepared, is filed along with this petition. Maharaj Udoy Aditya Deb "The 21st Bhadro 1291"