JUDGMENT

Sir Barnes Peacock, Kt., C.J. - The question which has been submitted for the opinion of a Full Bench is whether, u/s 21, Act VIII of 1859, or under any other rule of law applicable to the Mofussil Courts, women who, according to the usage of the country ought not to be compelled to appear in public, are exempt from arrest and imprisonment in execution of decrees? It appears to me to be clear that they are not exempt under any rule or law, unless they are exempt u/s 21. The only question then is whether they are exempt under the provisions of that section. Looking at the whole of Act VIII. of 1859, it appears to me that Mr. Justice Jackson expressed a correct opinion when he stated that " a pardanashin woman who is a judgment-debtor, is not protected from arrest and imprisonment in execution of a decree against her. " Section 17, paragraph 5, enacts that, " whenever the personal appearance of a party to a suit is required by the Act, such appearance may be made by his authorized agent, unless the Court shall otherwise direct. "Sections 19 and 20⁶ point out what may be done when an officer or soldier is a party to a suit.; and then Section 21, upon which the question turns, enacts ' that women who, according to the custom and manners of the country, ought not to be compelled to appear in public, shall be exempt from personal appearance in Court. " The section points out, 1st, the persons who are entitled to the exemption; and, 2ndly, the exemption to which they are entitled. The persons are women who, according to the custom and manners of the country, ought not to be compelled to appear in public. The exemption to which they are entitled is from personal appearance in Court. Section 22 exempts from personal appearance in Court any one whose rank in the opinion of Government entitled him to have that exemption conferred upon him. The exemption is the same in both cases, the only difference is that women who, according to the custom and manners of the country, ought not to be compelled to appear in public, have the exemption by virtue of the Act, whilst men of rank cannot claim the exemption unless the Government confers it upon them.

2. I can scarcely imagine that the Legislature would have vested the Local Government with power to exempt any class, however high their rank, from arrest in execution of decree, so long as it considered it necessary that arrest should be one of the means which ought ordinarily to be allowed for the enforcement of decrees; nor do I believe that the Legislature, much as it desired to regard the usages of the country, ever intended to exempt pardanashin women from arrest in execution of decrees, to which all other women are subject. There are many cases in which it would be impossible to enforce a decree against a native lady if she were exempt from arrest in execution. She may be a widow or a married woman; she may have separate property; or she may have only a small allowance for her maintenance and religious duties. Our experience teaches us that native ladies, especially widows, unacquainted with the world, are not unfrequently induced to allow speculative suits to be instituted in their names by persons who hope to derive profit if the suit succeeds, and agree to indemnify the women in whose names the suits are brought. In such oases, if the person in whose name the suit is instituted, has no property and no joint cause of suit, her opponent may be harassed by frivolous and vexatious litigation, if, when she fails in her suit, he cannot enforce a decree for costs against her by arrest in execution.

3. In the chapter of Act VIII of 1859, which relates to execution of decrees, it is enacted by Section 201, that if the decree be for money, it shall be enforced by the imprisonment of the party against whom the decree is made, or by the attachment and sale of his property, or by both, if necessary. By Section 222 it is enacted, " that where all necessary preliminary measures have been taken, wh