An executing court has no jurisdiction to attach a debt payable to the judgment-debtor outside its territorial jurisdiction.

1. The appellant is the judgment-debtor under the decree in O.S. No. 155 of 1124 of the Quilon District Court which is now pending execution before the District Court of Anjikaimal, Ernakulam. In execution of that decree the respondent (decree-holder) attached the amount due to the appellant as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (under Act XIV of 1951) for July 1953, after it became due, as a debt, under 0.21 R.46 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The appellant objected to the attachment on the ground that the disbursing authority was at Trivandrum and hence beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the Anjikaimal District Court. This contention was negatived by the court below and hence this appeal.

2. There can be no doubt that an executing court has no jurisdiction to pass a prohibitory order under O.21 R.46 unless either the debt to be attached is payable or the garnishee is within the jurisdiction of that court (AIR Commentary on the Code of Civil Procedure (5th Edition), Volume II, p/ 2338). It is admitted that neither is within the jurisdiction of the Anjikaimal District Court and this appeal has hence to be allowed.

3. The leading case on the subject is XXXIX Calcutta 104. As stated therein a garnishment proceeding, in its essential elements, "is a proceeding by the defendant in the suit against the garnishee, in the name and for the benefit of the plaintiff", and it is only in places where the garnishee could be sued by the defendant for the payment that he can be charged as a garnishee on account of it. That case is a direct authority for the proposition that "it is not competent to a court, in execution of a decree, for money, to attach at the instance of the decree-holder, a debt payable to the judgment-debtor outside the jurisdiction, by a person not resident within the jurisdiction of that court".

4. The appeal is hereby allowed; but in the circumstances of the case without any order as to costs. Allowed.