Misra, J.

1. This is a defendants appeal arising out of a suit by the plaintiff-respondent for recovery of a sum of Rs. 496/- as principal and Rs. 178-8-0 as interest, on the basis of a hand-note dated 27-12-1942.

2. It was alleged that the defendant borrowed the sum under the hand-note with promise to pay the same on demand along with interest at the rate of Rs. 12/- per cent. per annum.

3. Defence case was that the hand-note was forged and fabricated. The plaintiff was a dealer in kerosene oil and was the secretary of the Cane-growers Co-operative Society, and it was in that, capacity that he obtained a number of blank pieces of paper with the defendants thumb-mark thereon and he suspected that plaintiff converted on a of these pieces of paper into a regular hand-note on which he based a false and fraudulent claim, further plea taken was that the plaintiff was a regular money-lender, and under Sec. 4, Bihar Money Lenders (Regulation of Transactions) Act (7 of 1939) he could not recover the amount, if any, advanced by him as he was not a registered money-lender.

4. The learned Munsif held that the hand-note was genuine, but the plaintiff was not a registered money-lender,