JUDGMENT

Tek Chand, J. - The facts of the case, which have given rise to this reference to the Full Bench are as follows: In a suit brought on foot of a mortgage a preliminary decree in terms of Order 34, Rule 4, Civil P.C., was passed by the Senior Subordinate Judge, Gurdaspur, in favour of the respondents against the petitioners on 6th July 1939. The decree was made final on 4th October 1939. An appeal by one of the defendants to this Court was dismissed by a Division Bench (Dalip Singh and Sale, JJ.) on 28th January 1941. Two months later, on 27th March 1941, an application under Section 30(3), Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act, 7 of 1934, as amended by Act 12 of 1940, was presented in this Court by the judgment-debtors alleging that they were "proprietors of agricultural land and were agriculturists as required by Section 7, Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act," that the debt in dispute also fell under Section 7 of the same Act, that the decree passed by this Court on 28th January 1941 was not in conformity with Sub-sections (1) and (2) of Section 30, Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act, as amended by Act 12 of 1940, and was avoid, able at the option of the applicants. They, therefo