Devaguptapu Kameswaramma vs Veddadi Venkatasubba Rao and Others

Wallis, J.—In this case the present 2nd defendant obtained a decree for maintenance against the 3rd defendant and recovered in execution

Rs. 637 which she was allowed to draw on giving security u/s 253 C.P.C. The surety was the 1st defendant, the father of the plaintiff. The decree

was reversed by the High Court, and the 1st defendant as surety was ordered to pay the 3rd defendant the money which had been recovered from

him by the 2nd defendant under the decree. The order was made u/s 253 C.P.C. which read with Section 583 C.P.C. was applicable to security

for the performance of appellate decrees according to Thirumalai v. Ramayyar. ILR (1889) M. I. This decision has been questioned before us on

the ground that it is inconsistent with the later decision in Arunachellam v. Arunachellam ILR (1891) M. 203. decided by the same Judges. In that

case the security had been given pending an appeal to the Privy Council, and it was necessary to invoke the aid of Section 610. C.P.C. to render

Section 253 applicable to the case. The learned Judges apparently were of opinion that it might have been invoked but for the fact that in 1888 a

special proviso had been introduced into Section 610, that, in so far as the order awards costs to the respondents, it may be executed against a

surety therefor to the extent to which he has rendered himself liable in the same manner in which it may be executed against the appellant. With

great respect it appears to me that what we have to look to is the meaning of Sections 253 and 610 as originally enacted in 1877. The fact that the

legislature eleven years later in 1888 inserted a proviso in Section 610 only shows the interpretation, which the framers of the amendment were

disposed to place upon the sections as they then stood. This interpretation is not authoritative, and in these circumstances the addition of the

proviso is no reason for modifying the opinion which the Court would otherwise have arrived at on the construction of the original sections. Even

where a proviso of this kind is introduced into a section at the time of enactment, it is often done ex abundanti cautela and it by no means follows

that the operation of the section is affected thereby. In these. circumstances I prefer to follow the earlier decision of the learned Judges in

Thirumalai v. Ramayyar ILR (1889) M. 1. which has been cited with approval in Chettikulam v. Venkatachala Reddiar v. Chettikulam Kumara

Venkatachala, Reddiar ILR (1905) M. 377. more especially as this interpretation of the sections had been adopted in the express provisions of the

present Code. I am therefore of opinion that the order was rightly made against the 1st defendant.

This order the: 3rd defendant executed against property which fell to the plaintiff at a partition between himself and his father, the 1st defendant,

after the date of the order against the father. The plaintiff objected that the properties were not liable to attachment, and on the rejection of his

claim filed the present suit to establish his right. The defence in the lower Court was that the partition was collusive and inoperative, but the lower

Courts, rejected this contention and gave the plaintiff a decree.

In Second Appeal the point has been taken that, even supposing the partition to have been good, the present 3rd defendant is none the less

entitled to execute the decree against the plaintiff, to the extent of the joint family property which has come to him, the order being equivalent to a

decree which he obtained against the plaintiff''s father before the partition. The order u/s 253, may, I think, be considered as equivalent to a decree

against the father, and it appears to be now settled in this Court that a suretyship liability such as this, is one which a Hindu son is under a pious

obligation to discharge.

I think it is also clear that plaintiff as a Hindu son is liable for the debt to the extent of the joint family property which came to his hands at

partition Ramachandra Padayachi v. Kondayya Chetty ILR (1901) 24 M. 555. The only question then is, is a decree for such a debt obtained

against the father before partition executable after partition-against the son and the joint family property alloted to him. In Krishnasami Konan v.

Ramasami Ayyar ILR (1899) M. 519., where the father had contracted the debt before partition, and a suit had been brought and a decree

passed against him after partion, it was held that the decree could not be executed against the properties which had fallen to the son on partition,

because the principle upon which the son cannot object to ancestral property being seized in execution for an unsecured personal debt of the father

is, that the father under the Hindu law is entitled to sell on account of such debt the whole of the ancestral estate."" This necessarily implies that at

the time the property is attached it remains the undivided property of the father and the son. The same view has been taken under very similar

circumstances by Miller & Krishanasivami Aiyer JJ. in Lakshmana chettiar v. Govindarajulu Naidu (1910) 8 M.L.T. 349. -see also Rathna Naidu

Vs. P.R. Aiyanachariar and Others, . It is sought to distinguish these cases on the ground that the order equivalent to a decree was made against

the father in this case before the date of partition; but this circumstance does not appear to make any difference, as, at the date of execution, the

property now in question had ceased to be joint family property, and the cases refered to on the other side Jagabhai Lalubhai v. Bhukandas

Jagjivandas ILR (1886) B. 37. Deendyal Lal v. Judgeeb Narain Singh (1877) 4. I.A. 247., Suraj Bunsi Koer v. Sheo Proshad Singh (1879) 6.

I.A. 88. Nanomi Babuastin v. Modhun Mohun ILR (1885)13 C. 21. and Govind v. Sakharam ILR (1904). B. 383. were all cases in which the

property remained joint and so subject to alienation by the father in satisfaction of his debt. Lastly it had been attempted to base an argument on

Section 53 of the present Code which provides, that for the purpose Sections 50 and 52. property in the hands of a son which under the Hindu

Law is liable for the payment of the debt of his deceased father in the respect of which a decree has been passed shall be deemed to be property

of the deceased father which has come to the hand of his son as his legal representative. This stationary fiction however only applies to the case of

a deceased father, and we should not be justified in extending it to a case where father is still living or in inferring, as has been suggested, that as the

decree could under the section be executed against the property in question if the father was dead, it must be a fortiori be executable against the

same property when the father is alive. The answer is that the legislature has not made any such provision. In the result the second appeal fails and

is dismissed with costs.

Oldfied, J.

I concur.