( 1 ) THE circumstances giving rise to this appeal by the judgment-debtor in short are these : In the course of execution of a decree obtained by respondent No. 1 against the appellant firm, certain house property of the latter was attached and put to sale. The sale was to be held on 26th, 27th and 28th of June 1878. The auction-sale proceedings commenced on 26-6-1978 as per the schedule within the precincts of the Court-house. Till 28-6-1978, there were no bidders forthcoming and as such the proceeding-were continued day to day, barring holidays, up to 7-7-1978 under orders of the Court. When this also failed to improve the matters, the Court passed an order on 10-7-1978 countermanding the sale warrant unexecuted. Subsequently, permission was granted to the decree-holder under Order 21 Rule 72 Civil P. C. to bid for and purchase the property and after a fresh proclamation, the attached house property was again put to sale fixing 18th, 19th and 20th September 1978 for that purpose. The auction sale was to be held within the Court precincts as before. Once again, the result was disappointing inasmuch as notwithstanding the fact that the sale proceedings were continued day to day up to 29-9-1978 under orders of the court, there was no bidder to advance the proceedings to a take-off stage. Undeterred, the proceedings were pressed on with the result that on 30-91978, the official bid of Rs. 25,000/- was raised to Rupees. 40,000/- by the decree-holder. Not satisfied, the Court ordered the proceedings to continue working day to working day as before.

( 2 ) THE results started showing when on 4-10-1978, the highest bid recorded was Rs. 44,000/-; on 5-10-1978 it was Rs. 51,000/-; and on 7-10-1978 it reached Rs. 52,000/ -. There was again a short lull but on 12-10-1978, a prospective purchaser came forward to throw his weight in the auction sale and that too for the first time. He was respondent No. 2 Govind Singh and it is he who took it to the pinnacle of Rupees 72,000/- by 28-10-1978. Hoping against hope, however, the sale was ordered to be continued till 15-11-1978 of which the net result was only this : the status quo prevailed throughout the period, i. e. , up to the very fifteenth day of November 1978 with no bidder to be seen round-about to even register his presence. Strangely enough, respondent No. 2 govind Singh was also sailing in the same boat though his was the ruling bid at rs. 72,000/- till then. Even so, the Court ordered the sale proceedings to continue for yet another week. This proved to be a still-born move with the result that, at long last, on 22-11-1978, when the proceedings were laid before the Court, an order was passed obviously at the end of the day accepting the bid of respondent No. 2 Govind Singh.

( 3 ) IT is then perhaps that for the first time it was realized that the bid has been accepted without ensuring presence of respondent No. 2 Govind Singh. There is, indeed, nothing in the record of the auction sale proceedings to show that respondent No. 2 Govind Singh was present when his bid was accepted or that he was informed any time on or after 28-10-1976 but before 22-11-1978 to appear and much less watch the proceedings up to the end because of his being the highest bidder.

( 4 ) IT is only after his bid was accepted as above that on 23-11-1978, respondent No. 2 Govind Singh was officially informed under notice dated 2311-1978 that the Court has accepted his bid dated 28-10-1978 under its order dated 22-11-1978 and as such no sooner he receives the notice than he should appear ready with money to deposit one-fourth of the amount of his purchase-money. Abiding by the notice as well as his own bid of Rupees 72,000/- as also without any protest, respondent No. 2 Govind Singh appeared before the Court on 23-11-1978 itself explaining the circumstances --quite correctly -- which made him part with the money (that he had kept ready to encash his bid in case of its proving the highest) and soug