Wadsworth, J.

1. The petitioner sued on a promissory note dated 16th March 1942, for a sum of Rs. 1818-3-0, executed in settlement of previous debts, one of May 1939 and the other of June 1939. The spit promissory note carried compound interest. It was admitted in the lower Court that the respondent was an agriculturist entitled to relief under Madras Act 4 of 1938. The lower Court in applying Section 13 of that Act, has apparently labored under the misapprehension that Section 13 was to be applied not to the actual suit contract, but to the previous debts which it superseded. There is nothing in Section 13 which imports the explanation to Section 8 and allows the Court to go behind the contract. The defendant may, of course, raise contentions under the ordinary law such as failure of consideration or a plea that the suit debt is nothing more than an acknowledgment of the antecedent debt, which would justify the Court into going into the amount due under the antecedent debt. The defendant did in fact raise the contention that when the defendant signed the suit promissory note, he did so under a representation that the amount for which he signed was only the amount due on applyi