A public officer is not entitled to a notice under Section 80, C.P.C., when they do an act which cannot be done in their official capacity.

JUDGMENT :- This is an appeal against the appellate judgment reversing the decree passed in favour of the plaintiff-appellant. Respondent No. 1 who is defendant No. 2 in the suit is a Civil Supply Sub-Inspector. The other defendant, a paddy procuring sub-agent, against whom the trial court decree was passed and not reversed in the first appeal, is respondent No. 2 in the present appeal. The appellants case is that respondent No. 1, by fabricating a requisition order, which had been signed in a blank form by the S.D.M., of Russelkonda, illegally seized 196 mds. of paddy from the appellants grain-pit which was opened at the cost of the appellant and the two defendants removed, the said paddy in eleven carts, the cost of which was also paid by the appellant, and they also took away 24 gunny bags belonging to the appellant.

According to the appellant, the price of the paddy removed was Rs. 1237-4-0, the cost of opening the pit was Rs. 15/-, the price of the gunny bags was Rs. 15/-, and the cartage cost was Rs. 27-8-0, thus making a total of Rs. 1295-12-0. Out-of this, the appellant admitted to have received Rs. 1135-8-0, from the defendants and the balance was Rs. 160-4-0. The appellant claimed interest on this amount at Rs. 39-12-0, and thus the total claim made by the appellant was Rs. 200/-. The appellant had advanced an alternate claim of Rs. 200/- as damages in tort for mental pain and falling in the estimation of the public on account of illegal seizure, and he valued the total claim, for purposes of court-fee at Rs. 200/-.

2. The trial court allowed Rs. 43-8-0 as cost incurred by the plaintiff in respect of removal or the paddy, Rs. 15/- as the price of the gunny bags and Rs. 39-12-0 towards interest, thus making a total of Rs. 98-4-0. The trial court, however, granted a decree in favour of the plaintiff against both the defendants for Rs. 200/- as claimed, the residual amount over Rs. 98-4-0 being damages which had been alternatively claimed. The plea of the respondent No. 1 that he had seized and removed the paddy under the written authority of the S. D. M., was not accepted by the trial court who came to a finding that the said authority had been fabricated. The trial court rejected the plea of respondent No. 1 that the absence of a notice under S. 80, C.P.C., was fatal to the suit. The appellate court, while agreeing with the finding of the trial court that the authority on which respondent No. 1 claimed to have acted was a fabricated one, hold that a notice under S. 80, C.P.C., was necessary and so allowed respondent No. 1s appeal.

3. In the present case both the courts have proceeded on the assumption that the Civil Supply Inspector himself had no power to seize the paddy and he could do so only on the authority of the S. D. M. The main question in the present appeal is whether a notice under S. 80, C.P.C., was necessary. Section 80, C.P.C., provides that no suit shall be instituted against a public officer in respect of any act purporting to be done by such public officer in his official capacity, until a notice has been served in the manner prescribed.

In the present case, respondent No. 1 was a. Civil Supply Inspector at the locality and he expressed publicly that he was seizing the paddy under an authority from the S. D. M., which authority could not he a real authority inasmuch as the authority has been signed by the S.D.M., In a blank form, which was subsequently filled in by the Civil Supply Inspector. It is admitted in the case that the seized paddy was produced before the S. D. M. The plaintiff believed that there was an authority from the S. D. M., and so he felt himself forced to part with the paddy and later on discovered that the said authority was not a real authority.

Under S. 80, C.P.C., the act of the public officer forming the cause of action in the suit shall fee purporting to have been done by such public officer in his official capacity. Purport, according to the dictionary meaning, is be intended to s