JUDGMENT

Sir Norman, Officiating C.J., Trevor, Morgan and Kemp, JJ. - We think it is clear that, in cases of mortgages which are foreclosed, the right of pre-emption does not arise till the sale becomes absolute. This is evident from the very definition given by Macnaghten of the right of pre-emption, viz., that it is a power of possessing property which has been sold by paying a sum equal to that paid by the purchaser. See also Hamilton's Hedaya, Vol. III, p. 568; Macnaghten's Precedents, p. 196; and a case of Mussamut Jankee Kooer v. Mussamut Lekranee Kooer W.R., 1864, Civ. Rul., 285, decided in this Court by Trevor and Campbell, JJ., 18th June 1864. It has never been contended that a right of pre-emption includes a right of paying off a mortgage, and of standing in the position of the mortgagee. It appears from Baillie's Mahomedan Law of Sale, p. 303, edition of 1850, that, notwithstanding a mortgage by way of conditional sale to a co-sharer, the mortgagor, in right of his equity of redemption, retains his right of pre-emption in respect of other land sold by that co-sharer to a stranger. This shows that a mortgage does not in any way affect the right of pre-emption. For this pur