H.Mahapatra, J.

1. The plaintiffs, who are appellants, brought a suit for recovery of a mortgage debt on the basis of a mortgage deed executed by one Motilal, now dead, on the 25th April, 1951, for Rs. 2500.00 in favour of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs filed a certified copy of the mortgage deed, which has been marked as Ext. 2 (a) on the allegation that the original document was given to the pleaders clerk to get the plaint drafted for filing the suit This was in March, 1952. On April, 11, 1952, the house of the pleaders clerk got fire, and the document in question along with many other papers were destroyed in that fire. The present suit was filed in 1954. Several pleas were raised in defence, but it is not necessary to refer to them here, as the findings on most of them are in favour of the plaintiffs-appellants.

2. Both the courts below have found that the loss of the original document has not been, proved by the plaintiffs. Nothing has been pointed out here to show that this finding is incorrect. The certified copy could not have been admitted as secondary evidence, unless the loss of the original document was established. Therefore, the basis of the plaintiffs suit i