The central legal point established in the judgment is that a suit may be barred by Section 66 of the Civil Procedure Code if the purchase of properties is found to be benami for the plaintiff, and the conveyance was not intended to transfer any title vested in the defendant to the plaintiff.

1. This is an appeal by the plaintiff against a decree of the Subordinate Judge, Tinnevelly. The plaintiff alleged in his plaint that it was agreed between the plaintiff and Chidambara Iyer, father of the defendant, that the latter should purchase the properties now in suit on behalf of the plaintiff at a sale in execution of a decree with the money which the plaintiff agreed to pay to him, and that the properties should be taken possession of through Court; that Ohidam-bara Iyer should enjoy for four years the income, from the said properties in satisfaction of all debts incurred on those properties; that after four years the properties should be put into plaintiffs possession free of all incumbrances and that. Chidambara Iyer should execute a sale-deed to plaintiff in respect of them. In accordance with these arrangements, the plaintiff states that the properties were purchased by Chidambara Iyer as plaintiffs agent with plaintiffs money and that he remaiped in possession. The plaintiff now sues for the execution of a sale-deed and for recovery of possession. The suit was dismissed by the Subordinate Judge as ho was of opinion that it is barred by Section 66 of the Civil Procedure Code.

2. The plaintiff appeals. The section enacts that "no suit shall be maintained against any person claiming title under a purchase certified by the Court in such manner as may be prescribed on the ground that the purchase was made on behalf of the plaintiff or on behalf of some one through whom the plaintiff claims." When the plaintiff was examined as a witness in the case, he admitted that the defendants father Chidambara Iyer purchased the suit properties in Court auction as benamidar for him. And he again repeated the statement that the agreement between myself and defendants father was that he should purchase the properties for me as benamidar and that he should enjoy the properties for four years," in accordance with the arrangement referred to. This statement that the purchase by the defendants father was benami for the plaintiff was repeated in the plaint and also in his deposition as his witness.

3. It was argued before us that as there was an agreement to execute a conveyance in favour of the plaintiff, Section 66 does not bar the suit. But the conveyance was to be executed by the defendants father on the ground that he was a benamidar. It was not intended thereby that he should convevy any title which was vested in him to the plaintiff. The allegations in the plaint do not show that any title was vested in the defendant, that he purchased the property on his own behalf as the owner of the property. It appears to us that the case falls clearly within the scope of Section 66, Civil Procedure Code.

4. We accordingly confirm the decree of the lower Court and dismiss the appeal with costs.