Lord Justice Goddard.:-

This appeal is from a judgment and decree of the High Court at Lahore upholding the award of an arbitrator dated 11th December 1937. The circumstances under which the arbitration came to be held are that in the year 1931 the present appellant took proceedings in the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge at Amritsar claiming possession of 132 kanals of land which he alleged were sold to him by respondent 1 who was originally the sole defendant. His case was that the land had been bought for him by Ujagar Singh, as benamidar, for the sum of Rs. 15,500, and this person was subsequently added as a defendant 2. The defendant's case was that he had never sold anything to the plaintiff; he had sold the occupancy but not the proprietary rights in his land to Ujagar Singh who was a real purchaser and not a benamidar for the plaintiff but who had practised a fraud upon him. Then he said that under a threat of criminal proceedings Ujagar had cancelled the sale deeds and the money which had passed was returned. Ujagar Singh filed a written statement denying that the land was sold to the plaintiff or that he (Ujagar) was benamidar for him. It was not till 3lst August 1936