Immunity from attachment.

These two Civil Revision Petitions raise a common point which I shall make clear by reference to the facts of the case.

Veluyudha Mudaliar, the first respondent herein, filed a suit, O.S. No. 871 of 1957 on the file of the District Munsif’s Court, Salem, for recovery of a certain amount due from Palani Goundan, the second respondent herein, and attached before judgment a sum of Rs. 515 in the hands of the revision petitioner, the Mettur Industries Ltd., hereinafter called the garnishees. This Rs. 515 included a provident fund amount of Rs. 322. Notice of interim attachment was served on the garnishees on 21st December, 1957. They did not object to the attachment and the attachment was confirmed on 31st January, 1958. The suit was subsequently decreed. When the garnishees were called upon to deposit the attached amount into Court, they intimated the Court by Exhibit A- 1 dated 4th July, 1958 that provident fund amount being exempt from attachment, they were unable to deposit the amount. By its letter Exhibit A-2 dated 16th August, 1958 the Court however directed the garnishees to deposit the amount whereupon they deposited the amount, it is said, under protest and by I.A. No. 2637 of 1958 applied to the Court for issue of a cheque for Rs. 322. They averred that the said amount was a portion of the provident fund which they were entitled to withhold and that the decree-holder is entitled only to payment of the balance of the attached amount, namely, Rs. 193. While this application was pending, the decree-holder also applied by E.A. No. 2706 of 1958 for a cheque for entire Rs. 5 15 impleading the garnishees also as a respondent. The learned District Munsif heard both the applications together and by a common order, dated 23rd February, 1959, dismissed the garnishees’ application and allowed the First Respondent’s application. It is the correctness of this order that is challeged in these petitions.

The common point urged for the garnishees is that the order directing the issue of cheque to the First Respondent so far as it relates to the provident fund amount is without jurisdiction as the order of attachment and the subsequent proceedings pursuant to it are void in law.

Section 60 (k) of the Civil Procedure Code provides immunity from attachment of the provident fund amount. There is prohibition against attachment of provident fund amount standing to the credit of an employee in the Employees’ Provident Funds Act, 1952 (Act XIX of 1952)-vide section 10. This position is conceded for the First Respondent decree-holder ; so that the order of attachment of the provident fund amount was illegal.

It is however urged for the First Respondent that the Second Respondent had resigned his job on 19th December, 1957, that is, two days before notice of attachment was served upon the garnishees,that the amount became payable to the Second Respondent on his resignation, that thereafter it ceased to be provident fund amount and therefore the prohibition contemplated under section 60 (k) of the Civil Procedure Code and section 10 of the Employees’ Provident Funds Act does not apply. This contention found favour with the learned District Munsif. He also repelled the argument based upon provision in the scheme framed by the garnishees by which the provident fund could be paid only after the expiry of six months from the date of the employee’s discharge and held that this provision could be construed only as deferring payment of the amount and not as conferring any immunity from attachment.

It would appear that prior to the deposit of the amount in Court the garnishees paid the provident fund amount to the Second Respondent. This conduct on the part of the garnishees was construed by the learned District Munsif as supporting the decree-holder’s contention that the garnishee’s attempt was only to defeat his claim. In the context of the point for consideration in these petitions, I do not think that the above conduct of the garnishees is very rel