A casual money-lender is one who advances money to friends in distress or as an accommodation loan, and not for the purpose of gain.

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, and as such he could not recover the loan advanced by him to the defendant.

5. On appeal, the learned Subordinate Judge came to the conclusion that the hand-note was genuine and, in fact, the plaintiff was not registered as a money-lender, but still he would succeed because the loan in question was under a promissory note which was not hit by the provisions of the Honey-Lenders Act. The learned Subordinate Judge relied upon the case of --Narsinga Prasad V/s. Ramcharitar Singh, AIR 1945 Pat 297 (A) where their Lordships of this Court took the view that on account of the decision of the Federal Court of India on the Bengal Money-Lenders Act the loan evidenced under promissory notes was not covered by the prohibitory provisions of the Money-Lenders Act. But it may be stated that the case considered by the Federal Court of India, to which reference was made in -- AIR 1945 Pat 297 (A), went in appeal before the Judicial Committee, and it was clearly held by their Lordships of the Judicial Committee in that case which came to be reported as --Prafulla Kumar Mukherjee V/s. Bank of Commerce Ltd., Khulna, AIR 1947 PC 60 (B), that a loan under a promissory note also was, in substance, money-lending and that the promissory note was an instrument for securing the loan and had no independent significance of its own so as to exempt such transaction from the provisions of the Money-Lenders Act. It has since been held that all loans howsoever evidenced would come within the provisions of the Money-Lenders Act unless the plaintiff could prove that ho was not a professional money-lender, or, in certain circumstances, if the loan advanced by him in any particular year did not amount to above Rs. 500/-as required under the notification to which reference has been made in the case of -- Rai Shyam Bahadur V/s. Rameshwar Prasad, AIR 13-12 Pat 441 (C).

6. Mr. Gorakh Nath Singh appearing on behalf of the appellant has drawn my attention in this connection to the Division Bench ruling of this Court in the case of -- Meghraj Tibrawala V/s. Panchu Sahu, AIR 1952 Pat 39 (D), where their Lordships following the decision of their Lordships of the Judicial Committee, to which I have referred before, observed, that it must be held that all loans are covered by the Money-Lenders Act and there is no exemption in favour of a hand-note debt.

7. Mr. Dasu Sinha appearing on behalf of the respondent does not challenge the correctness of this proposition, but he contends, that the plaintiff is still entitled to a decree because he is a, casual money-lender and not a professional moneylender, who alone is contemplated under Sec. 4, Bihar Money-Lenders Act. He has drawn my attention in this connection to the case of --Bhutnath V/s. Nilkantha, AIR 1949 Pat 400 (E) and to the case of -- Mt. Su