The main legal point established in the judgment is the applicability of the Civil Procedure Code to execution proceedings and the principle of estoppel in claiming joint family status.

1. The Madras Court of Small Causes passed a decree in plaintiffs favour for Rs. 1,386-10-9 and costs and Vakils fee Rs. 60 against the assets of the deceased Angus Amy if any in the hands of the defendants. This decree was transferred to the District Munsifs Court at Tiruvallur. The plaintiffs attached some property as the assets of Angus Amy in the hands of the defendants. The defendants 1 to 8 applied to the District Munsif of Tiruvallur for releasing the property from attachment on the ground that the properties were the joint family properties of the defendants 1 to 8 and Angus Amy and that they were entitled to them by right or survivorship after the death of Angus Amy. The District Munsif allowed the petition, and on appeal by the decree-holders the District Judge set aside the order of the District Munsif and upheld the attachment so far as the share of Angusamy was concerned. Against this order the present appeal is filed by defendants 1 to 8. The first contention on behalf of the appellants is that no appeal lay to the District Court against the order of the District Munsif. The argument is that the District Munsifs Court is governed by the rules framed by the High Court under the Presidency Small Cause Courts Act XV of 1882, and under the rules no appeal is provided for against an order in execution. The decree of the Madras Small Cause Court was transferred to the Tiruvallur Court to be executed not in its Small Cause side but on its regular side. Under the rules the Madras Small Cause Court has no power to execute its decrees against immoveable properties. Under Section 31 of the Act the Madras Small Cause Court may, on the application of the decree-holder, send the decree for execution.

(a) In the case of the execution against immoveable property situate within such local limit (to the Madras City Civil Court or the High Court of Judicature at Fort William or Bombay as the case may be); (b) in all other cases to any Civil Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction such judgment-debtor, or any moveable or immoveable property of such judgment-debtor may be found. The procedure prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure for the execution of decrees by Courts other than those which made them shall be the procedure followed in such cases. Section 8 of the Civil Procedure Code, makes only certain sections of the Civil Procedure Code, applicable to the Court of Small Causes established in the Town of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. No doubt Sections 38, 39, 40 and 41 are not among the sections applicable to the proceedings in the Madras Small Cause Court, but the question is not what is the procedure governing the execution in the Madras Small Cause Court, but what is the procedure governing executions in the District Munsifs Court to which the decree of the Small Cause Court is transferred for execution. It is conceded that the District Munsifs Court in executing a decree of the Madras Small Cause Court exercises its powers not as a Small Cause Court but as a Court of Original Jurisdiction, for, in execution of the decree immoveable property could be attached. If immoveable property is attached the provisions which relate to claim petitions and other provisions of Order 21 of the Civil Procedure Code would apply to attachment and sale of immoveable property. The contention for the appellants is that the Small Cause decree which has been transferred to the Tiruvallur Court retains its character of a Small Cause decree and the rules governing its execution in the Madras Small Cause Court are applicable to the proceedings in the Tiruvallur Munsifs Court. Some provisions of the Civil Procedure Code are made applicable to the Madras Small Cause Court by notification of 17th May, 1916, and Section 42 of the Code in its amended form is one of them and it is in these terms: " The Court executing a decree sent to it shall have the same powers in executing such a decree as if it had been passed by itself....And its o