1. The petitioner Dagdu Dhondu Patil filed Miscellaneous Application No. 2775 of 1945 under the Bombay Agricultural Debtors Relief Act 1939, in the Court of the Civil Judge, Junior Division, Chalisgaon, alleging that an oral sale by him of S. No. 5/5A of the Village of Sarwe Budruk, Taluka Pachora to one Sampat Supdu for a consideration of Rs. 550/- by a yardi given to the village officers, was in the nature of a mortgage and that the debt due thereunder had been satisfied praying an order for return of the land. Sampat Supdu died during the pendency of the application and his heirs were brought on the record. The heirs of Sampat Supdu, whom I will hereafter refer to as the opponents, contended that the land was sold on 9th June 1935, by an oral sale to Sampat Supdu by the petitioner Dagdu Dhondu and that the transaction was not in the nature of a self redeeming mortgage as alleged by the petitioner. They also denied that there was an agreement to return the land after seven years. They submitted that the petitioner Dagdu Dhondu was not a debtor within the meaning of the B. A. D. 11. Act and that in any event the application having been filed more than 12 years after th