Rajagopala Ayyangar, J.- The Chief Court of Pudukottai passed a decree against the appellant in O.S. No. 390 of 1944 on its file. This was a compromise decree on a claim under a settlement dated 31st July, 1946. The appellant claiming himself to be an agriculturist entitled to relief under Madras Act IV of 1938 applied to the Subordinate Judge, Pudukottai, which was the successor of “the Court which passed the decree” for its scaling down under section 19 of the Act. This was O.P. No. 4 of 1953, and it is the correctness of the order of the Subordinate Judge dismissing the petition that forms the subject-matter of this appeal.

There was no dispute regarding the appellant having a “saleable interest in agricultural land”. But this claim to the relief was disputed on the ground that he fell within proviso (C) to section 3(ii) by having been assessed to house tax under municipal enactments the aggregate of which exceeded Rs. 600. It may be stated that the appellant admittedly owned three houses in the Panchayat of Alagapuri in the erstwhile Pudukottai State where he was assessed to property tax under the relevant enactment and that the annual rental value of those houses was Rs. 1025.

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