Jackson, J.

1. The respondent applied to the District Munsif of Negapatam to exercise his inherent power under Section 151, Civil Procedure Code, and stop a sale in execution of the decree in O.S. No. 53 of 1928.

2. The District Munsif found that the application was neither bona fide nor founded upon fact and dismissed it.

3. The District Judge, East Tanjore, has ordered further inquiry into the question whether 1st defendant was a lunatic and underrepresented at the time of the passing of the decree.

4. The auction-purchaser appeals on the ground that an executing Court cannot go behind the decree, and is not concerned with discovering whether in passing the decree the Trial Court acted according to law.

5. It is an accepted principle that the executing Court cannot go behind the decree. To employ other words but the same metaphor, it must take the decree at its face value. It can, inquire whether the Court as evidenced on the face of the decree by seal and signature was a properly constituted Court competent to pass the decree, but it need not inquire, having satisfied itself of the competence, whether it is a decree which the Court ought to have passed. For such an inquiry it