The central legal point established in the judgment is that the transfer of a right to claim mesne profits, declared by a decree, is valid under the Transfer of Property Act.

Sadasiva Ayyar, J.

1. The twenty-third defendant is the appellant before us. The purchaser from the first plaintiff who was entitled to and given a decree for the one-sixth share in certain properties prayed under Order XX, Rule 2, to have the mesne profits due to the petitioner by the twenty-third defendant ascertained, the decree in the suit having, as I read it, declared the first plaintiffs right to recover mesne profits from the date of suit against the twenty-third defendant and having only left the actual amount to be ascertained and awarded in a supplemental decree. I do not agree with the contention of the appellants learned vakil that the sale-deed to the petitioner by the first plaintiff did not transfer the first plaintiffs rights under the decree, but transferred merely a right to claim mesne profits.

2. The only remaining contention which has to be considered is whether, when a decree declaring such a right has been passed in favour of a litigant against another litigant, such a right can be transferred lawfully and whether the transferee is entitled to have the mesne profits due to his transferor ascertained by the ordinary procedure in the same suit in the ordinary course. Reliance is placed by the appellants learned vakil on the decisions beginning with Shyam Chand Koondoo v. The Land Mortgage Bank of India (1883) I.L.R., 9 Calc., 695. See also Seetamma v.Venkataramnnayya (1916) I.L.R., 38 Mad., 308, and Muthu Hengsu v. Netravathi Naiksavi (1920) 12 L.W., 44, in which it has been held that a claim for mesne profits is a claim for damages in tort which falls under the heading of "mere right to sue" in Section 6(e) of the Transfer of Property Act and hence cannot be assigned. I am inclined to hold that those decisions are the result of what I consider, with the greatest respect, to be an unnecessarily close adherence to the development of the Law of Torts in English Courts. I think a suit for mesne profits (as pointed out by my learned brother during the course of the argument) partakes more of the nature of a suit for account (along with which it is enumerated in the schedule to the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act). I think also that such a suit has under ordinary circumstances some affinity to a suit for money had and received, and I see no reason why in India, where according to the Privy Council the law of champerty and maintenance as developed in England has very little application, the transfer of a right to claim mesne profits should be held invalid. I think the reasoning in Ramiah v. Rukmani Ammal (1913) 24 M.L.J., 313, rather points to the conclusion that the transfer of such a right is not invalid. It is, however, unnecessary to express a final opinion on the question whether a claim for mesne profits which has not been declared to exist in the transferor by a decree of Court can be validly transferred or not. Where, however, such a claim has been declared by a decree, and only the exact amount recoverable has been left to be ascertained in future proceedings in the same suit, I think there can be no difficulty in holding that the transfer of such a right is valid, and I find that in Prasanno Kumar Panja v. Ashutosh Ray (1913) 18 C.W.N., 450, and Sari Prasad Misser v. Kodo Marya (1916) 1 Pat. L.J., 427, the validity of the transfer of such a right has been upheld. Following those decisions, I would dismiss this appeal with costs.

Seshagiri Ayyar, J.

3. I agree. The question for decision is whether after a preliminary decree which directs enquiry into the mesne profits and after a declaration has been inserted in the final decree regarding the rights of the parties, such a decree can be assigned to a stranger to enable him to execute it against one of the parties to the decree. My learned brother has said that the technicalities of the English Law should not be imported into this country. I take a different view. My complaint is not that we too slavishly follow English Law, but that we have not ke