Patanjali Sastri, J.-This is an appeal from an order refusing to scale down what is claimed to be a mortgage at the instance of the appellant who applied for relief under Madras Act IV of 1938. The application was dismissed on the ground that the transaction in question was not a mortgage at all but an absolute conveyance with a condition of retransfer and there was no debt which could be scaled down under the Act.

The transaction was embodied in two documents, Exs. D-1 and P-1, both dated the 22nd December, 1931. Ex. D-1 purports to be an out-and-out sale of the properties referred to therein to the respondent for Rs. 6,500 and Ex. P-1 provides that the properties shall be re-conveyed to the appellant on re-payment of the price within ten years. The appellant contended that the two documents taken together evidenced a mortgage by conditional sale and attempted to show by reference to the surrounding circumstances the real nature of the transaction according to the intention of the parties. The Court below refused to go into that question in view of the new proviso to section 58(c) of the Transfer of Property Act added by the Amending Act of 1929. The proviso runs thus:

“Provided tha

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