IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY
DIXIT AND MIABHOY, JJ.
Shankar Sadu Kamathe, Petitioner
Versus.
Chunilal Rupchand Dakale and another, Opponents.
Civil Revn. Appln. No. 1698 of 1956, Dt-18/19-3-1958;
(2) In order to appreciate the contention raised, it is necessary to refer to some of the provisions of the Act. Section 2 (4) defines a "debt." Section 2 (5) defines the expression "debtor." Section 4 (1) provides :
Any debtor ordinarily residing in any local area for which a Board was established under Section 4 of the repealed Act on or after the 1st February, 1947, or his creditor may make an application before 1-8-1947 to the Court for the adjustment of his debts."
The requirements of Sec. 4 (1), therefore, are (1) a debtor must ordinarily reside in any local area for which a Board was established under Sec. 4 of the repealed Act; (2) the Board must have been established on or after 1-2-1947 and (3) whether a debtor or his creditor, the person has to make an application before 1-8-1947 to the Court. It is not in dispute that the petitioner ordinarily resides in Poona. It is not in dispute also that the Board was constituted under Sec. 4 of the repealed Act on 1-2-1947. It is also not in dispute that the first opponent is a resident of Saswad in the Poona District. The narrow question which we have to decide is whether Section 4 (1) prescribes any period of limitation for the making of an application for the adjustment of debts. Two other the debtors sections may be noticed. One of these is section 43 which deals with appeals. Section 43, by sub-section (2), provides:
"An appeal from the Court shall lie to the District Court, and the appeal shall be made within sixty days from the date of the coming into force of the Bombay Agricultural Debtors Belief (Amendment) Act, 1948, or from the date of the order or award, as the case may be), whichever is later. In computing the period of sixty days the provisions contained in sections 4, 5 and 12 of the Indian Limitation Act, 1908, shall so far as may be, apply." Section 46 is another section which may be referred to and it says :
"Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. shall apply to all proceedings under this Chapter."
It is, therefore, plain that the procedure applicable to a proceeding under the Bombay Agricultural Debtors Belief Act, 1947, is the procedure laid down in the Code of Civil Procedure, save in so far as it is otherwise expressly provided in the Act. With regard to the question of the applicability of the Indian Limitation Act, there is no section which refers to the Act expressly save section 43 to which I have already referred.
Now, what happened in the present case was this. The debtor made his application on 15-7-1947. He had to make the application before 1-8-1947. So far, therefore, as the making of an application before a specified date is concerned, the debtor did make an application before the due date. But the debtor did not make the application to the Court within whose jurisdiction he was ordinarily residing. As I have already pointed out, he made the application in the Court of the Civil Judge, Junior Division, Saswad, while he was a resident of Poona. As he did not present the application to the proper Court, the application was returned to the petitioner for presentation to the proper Court! and this, he filed in the proper Court on 14-4-1948. If therefore, the debtor presented his application in the proper Court on 14-4-1948, then he did not make his application for adjustment of his debts before 1-8-1947 within the meaning of Section 4. It is obvious that the debtors applicati
Login now and unlock free premium legal research
Login to SupremeToday AI and access free legal analysis, AI highlights, and smart tools.
Login
now!
India’s Legal research and Law Firm App, Download now!
Copyright © 2023 Vikas Info Solution Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved.