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Judgment
Sadasiva Ayyar, J.—The plaintiff is the appellant. Her suit for specific performance of an alleged contract of 20th March 1910 (under which
the plaintiff was entitled to obtain a deed of renewal of a kanom mortgage which had been enjoyed by her deceased sister from 1897) was
dismissed by the District Court on two grounds: (1) the present suit having been commenced in June 1914 against the Receivers (defendants Nos.
3 to 5) appointed by the Sub-Court of Calicut in Suit No. 13 of 1913 (brought for removal of the first defendant, the promisor under the plaint
contract, from his position of karnavan by some members of his tavazhi), without previously obtaining the sanction of the Sub-Court, it could not
be sustained even though in July 1914 (before even the Receivers filed their written statements) the plaintiff obtained the Sub-Court''s sanction to
proceed with the present suit against the Receivers, (2) though ""there was a general understanding"" between the plaintiff and the first defendant that
the first defendant ""would be agreeable to the plaintiff"" (in the matter of the renewal of the kanom of 1897 in the plaintiff''s name) ""if she evicted one
Syed Ali"" (in possession of one of the kanom lands), ""there was no definite contract"" for renewal.
We are unable to agree with the learned District Judge as regards the first ground of his decision. Though the judgment in Pramatha Nath
Gangooly v. Khetra Nath Banerjee I.L.R.,(1905) Cal., 270 the decision of a single Judge) is in favour of the view of the District Judge, and though
a decision of this High Court (again, that of a single Judge), C. Venkatasubbaramiah v. Nambura Ramiah Sethi (1914) 24 I.C., 222 , also contains
observations in support of the same view, we think that the better opinion is the one enunciated by Division Benches of the Calcutta High Court in
Banku Behari Dey v. Harendra Nath Mukerjee (1910) 15 C.W.N., 54 and The Maharajah of Burdwan v. Apurba Krishna Roy (1911) 15
C.W.N., 872 and in Jagat Tarini Dasi v. Naba Gopal Chaki I.L.R., (1907) Cal., 305 (one of the members of the said Benches having been that
very learned Judge Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee). That opinion is also supported by text writers of acknowledges authority, like High, Woodroffe
(page 91) and Kerr (page 167). That opinion is to the effect that the omission to obtain previous sanction (a sanction which is not a condition
imposed by statutory law like the sanction mentioned in Section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure, or Section 17 of the Presidency Insolvency
Act, but one imposed by the common law to enforce due respect towards Courts of Justice) does not affect the jurisdiction of the Court, but is an
illegality which can be effectively cured by the plaintiff obtaining the sanction during the course of the litigation,
[Their Lordships then proceeded to deal with the facts of the case and agreeing with the findings of the lower Appellate Court, dismissed the
Second Appeal.]