JUDGMENT :- This is an appeal under Section 40 of the Displaced Persons (Debts Adjustment) Act 1951 (No. LXX of 1951), hereinafter called the Act.

2. One S. N. Jaggi made an application under Section 13 read with Section 18 of the Act before the Civil Judge of Allahabad who was constituted as the Tribunal under the Act. The applicant claimed recovery of a sum of Rs. 18,500/-from the National Security Assurance Company Limited (hereinafter called the Company) as compensation for the loss suffered by him on account of the looting and destruction of his property during the disturbances and riots on 7th and 8th of September 1947 in the town of Peshawar. The company had insured the goods in the shop covering a risk to the amount of Rs. 18,500/- and the goods in the house covering a risk to the amount of Rs. 8,000/-under a contract evidenced by a document of insurance policy No. 12225. The insurance policy was effective during the period 13-9-1946 to 13-9-1947. At the time when the said insurance policy was issued the head office of the company was situate at Lahore and the applicant Jaggi was carrying on business of an optician in a shop at Arbad Road, Peshawar Cantt. The applicant's house was attacked by the rioters in September 1947 and the household goods including trading goods kept in the house for which the company had covered a risk to the extent of Rs. 8,000/- were looted.

The applicant in accordance with the terms of the insurance policy sent immediate intimation to the company about the loss of the goods worth Rs. 8,000/-. Though the shop in Arbad Road was also looted but the applicant did not lay any claim with the company in regard to the insured property in the shop and it turned out on evidence in the proceedings giving rise to this appeal that the applicant had no knowledge of it and he came to know about the incident only when he had arrived in India as a refugee sometime in January, 1948, having left Peshawar on account of disturbances. Meanwhile the company also shifted its Head-office to Simla. When the applicant learnt about the loss of the goods of the shop in Arbad Road in Peshawar he at once laid a claim with the company demanding the sum of Rs. 18,500/-. But the company expressed its inability to pay the amount claimed as the intimation to it of the incident of looting of the shop in Arbad Road, Peshawar, was not given within fifteen days of the occurrence as required by clause (11) of the contract of insurance policy. As regards the sum of Rs. 8,000/- for the loss of the goods kept in the house at Peshawar, the company refused payment on technical pretexts. The applicant then filed a suit for recovery of Rs. 8,000/- in the civil court at Delhi which suit eventually ended in a compromise, the company having agreed to pay a sum of Rs. 5,500/- in full settlement of the claim under the insurance policy.

The applicant then came and settled at Allahabad having opened a shop for carrying on his old business of an optician. On 9th December, 1951, the Act was applied to Uttar Pradesh. The applicant then made the application giving rise to this appeal for recovery of Rs. 18,500/- claimed as debt by him as a displaced person from the company in the court of the Civil Judge of Allahabad. The company contested the claim of the applicant inter alia on the ground that the Tribunal at Allahabad had no jurisdiction; that the company itself was a displaced person having its Head-Office first at Simla and then at Delhi, that the claim of the applicant was barred by Order 2, Rule 2, of C. P. Code; that the applicant having received Rs. 5,500/- in Delhi in full settlement of the claim under the policy was not entitled to claim any further sum under the said policy and that the claim of the applicant was not in accordance with law.

2-A. On the pleadings of the parties the Tribunal framed the necessary issues which were as follows :-

(1) (a) Is the respondent a displaced person within the meaning of Displaced Persons (Debts Adjustmen

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