The main legal point established in the judgment is the applicability of the Civil Procedure Code to proceedings under the Estates Land Act and the interpretation of the expression 'carrying on business' in legal proceedings.

Varadhachariar, J.

1. These petitions ask for the revision of two orders passed by the District Collector of Time velly, in petitions presented to him under Section 203 of the Estates Land Act, against the orders of the Sub-Collector passed on two applications under Section 131 of the Estates Land Act.

2. The applications to the Sub-Collector purported to be made on behalf of a mortgagee of the holding, a portion whereof had been sold for arrears of rent. An objection was raised before the Sub-Collector that the applications should not be treated as properly presented, because Subbayya Naidu who purported to present the petitions was not an agent of the mortgagee in the sense contemplated by Sections 36 and 37 of the old Civil Procedure Code, corresponding to Rules and 2 of Order III of the present Code. The Sub Collector, however, treated that objection as not fatal; but on the merits, he was of opinion that as deposed by the village officers who had been examined as witnesses on the counter-petitioners side, the mortgage relied on in support of the applications must have been discharged by a subsequent arrangement between the mortgagor and the mortgagee.

3. It does not appear to have been brought to the notice of the Sub-Collector that even admitting every statement of the counter-petitioners witnesses to be true, no title has as yet been conveyed to the mortgage in respect of the portion proposed to be sold to him and even the transfer of possession to him of the properties so intended to be sold would not in the present state of the law vest the title in him. If the title in the portion intended to be sold in discharge of the mortgage debt had not passed, it is impossible to hold that the mortgage had been extinguished either. It was no doubt at one time held by a Full Bench of this Court that the transfer of possession in pursuance of an agreement to sell would suffice to convey title even in the absence of a registered deed of sale, but that view has now been over-ruled by a decision of the Privy Council.

4. I regret to find that even before the District Collector this matter does not seem to have been clearly stated. Some objections under the Civil Procedure Code are all that appears from his order to have been taken and I see no reason to think that he was not justified in over-ruling those objections.

5. It has been argued before me that it is open to this Court to interfere in revision and make the correct order. The decision in Ramaswamy Goundan v. Kali Goundan 42 M. 310 : 52 Ind. Cas. 634 : 36 M.L.J. 571 and the decision of the Full Bench in Sundaram v. Mamsa Mavuthar 44 M. 554 : 63 Ind. Cas. 937 : 40 ML J 497 : 13 L.W. 498 : 29 M.L.T. 269 : (1921) M.W.N. 272, would no doubt justify my interference notwithstanding some doubt as to whether the revision is to be of the Collectors order or of the Sub-Collectors order. But Mr. Jagannatha Das the learned Counsel for the respondent insists that if I consider myself at liberty to examine the correctness of the Sub Collectors order so far as it is against the petitioner, I should in fairness also consider the correctness of his order so far as it is against the respondent, i.e., of the view taken by the Sub-Collector that the petition was validly presented.

6. It will be open to me to interfere in revision only on the footing that the application under Section 131 was a judicial proceeding. If it is to be so regarded, it is obvious that the presentation of the petition must be held to be governed by the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code, including those enacted in Rules 1 and 2 of Order III. That those rules were intended to be applicable to proceedings under the Estates Land Act is made clear by Sub-clause (c) of Section 192, where the only modification made in Section 37 of the old Code is by substituting the words "whether resident or not" for the words "not resident".

7. It is impossible to hold that Subbayya Naidu who presented the petition comes under Clause (a