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1950 DIGILAW 344 (MAD)

Mudragada Subbarao v. Mudragada Venkatanarasimha Rao

1950-11-16

BASHEER AHMED SAYEED, GOVINDA MENON

body1950
Judgement GOVINDA MENON, J. :- The important point which has to be considered in this appeal is whether the compromise decree passed by the Subordinate Judge of Kakinada in O. S. No. 37 of 1912 on 28-11-1918 is executable or not, because the appln out of which the present appeal arises is for execution of that decree and for reliefs which have been claimed in para 13 of the execution petn. The reliefs claimed are that resp 1 in the lower Ct be directed to hand over the account paper, etc., relating to the Veeravallipalem Choultry trust and place the petnr in possession of the properties for managing it for three years continuously and that the resps 1 to 3 be directed to file into Ct from the year Promoduta onwards the accounts till the date of petn. There were incidental reliefs also prayed for. 2. Various objections were raised but they were all overruled by the learned Judge who allowed the petn as prayed for with some reliefs granted in favour of the petnr. As we are not deciding the correctness or otherwise of the findings of the learned Judge on the point for consideration which arose before him except with regard to the executability of the decree, we do not wish to say anything regarding the justifiability of the findings of the learned Judge on the facts and evidence placed before him. 3. The operative portion of the decree with which we are concerned is as follows: "In the rajinama filed by the parties on 7-2-1913 the Ct, was invited to frame a scheme as regards the management of the Veeravallipalem choultry by pltfs and defts 1 to 5. No detailed scheme is necessary as the rajinama says that it should be managed as a private choultry of the family. It is however necessary to give some simple directions to avoid disputes, (a) The properties allotted under the said rajinama and also the income of the choultry lands for the current year and the amount now ascertained and allotted to the choultry for the 6 pies share of the profits of the Kotipalli lankas, do vest in the choultry as the property of the trust. The amount now allotted will form a corpus fund which, on realisation, shall be invested in proper securities, (b) The choultry and its properties and income should be managed by rotation of a Telugu year, each beginning with deft 1 who is the eldest member and after awards pltf 1 and subsequently deft 4 and Anally deft 5 (defts 4 and 5 would have attained majority prior to their turn). Deft 1 will also manage for the rest of the current Telugu year, (c) The trustee should in his turn keep proper accounts of the receipts and disbursements, file a copy of the account into Ct once in 6 months for the inspection of the other parties and hand over the accounts with the cash on hand at the end of his turn to the succeeding trustee ....." In our opinion the utmost that could be said in favour of the executable nature of the decree is that the last sentence which mentions that "the trustee should hand over the accounts with the cash on hand at the end of his turn to the succeeding trustee" is a provision which might possibly be said to make this decree executable; that is, as soon as the one year term mentioned in the decree for one of the parties to manage the properties expires, he should hand over the properties with the accounts to the succeeding trustee. It is contended for the petnr resp that this portion of the decree is executable and as such the appln in the lower Ct is maintainable. In our opinion it is difficult to hold that this sentence should be construed as an executable decree passed with a direction by the Ct that the decree-holder may execute it against a judgment-debtor. We are unable to say that there is my decree-holder as such or that there is any judgment-debtor. It may be that during one year the person entitled to keep possession of the management may be a judgment-debtor if the construction put upon it by the learned counsel for the petnr-resp can be accepted so that the two positions interchange during various years and we feel that it is unsafe to construe this portion of the decree as an executable one. A large body of case law of this Ct has laid down that a provision in a scheme decree is inexecutable, whether the provision is directory or mandatory and the preponderance of judicial opinion in the Madras H. C. is against the view that such provisions are executable. See Vaithilinga Mudaliar v. Thyagarajasami Devastanam, Tiruvarur, 59 Mad 751: (AIR (23) 1936 Mad 581); Krishnamurthi v. Seetharamanujacharyulu, 45 MLW 230: (AIR (24) 1937 Mad 326); Ramanathan Chettiar v. Madura Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Devastanam, 1937-2 ML J 887: (AIR (25) 1938 Mad 256) and Achutarama Rao v. Bapanayya, 1943-1 MLJ 504: (AIR (29) 1942 Mad 748). As the trend of decisions of this Ct is very much in favour of the view that provisions in a scheme decree cannot be executed, though there were a few decisions to the contrary earlier, we do not feel that despite the view taken by the other H. Cs. we should go against the trend of authority of this Ct. We, therefore, are of opinion that the decree as such cannot be executed. 4. Mr. Narasaraju for resp 1 contended that the provision for an yearly management in the decree is one which accrues in favour of each of the parties as and when their turn comes and that portion of the decree can be separated and executed. For this purpose he invited our attention to the observations contained in Varadiah Chetti v. Narasimhalu Chetti, 54 Mad 345: (AIR (19) 1932 Mad 41). We do not think that the observations contained in that judgment can be usefully applied to the elucidation of the question for decision in the present case. 5. Mr. Narasaraju then contended that as was allowed in Krishnamurthi v. Seetharama-nujacharyuiu, 45 MLW 230: (AIR (24) 1937 Mad 326), resp 1 should be permitted to convert the execution appln into a suit under the second part of S. 47, C. P. C. We feel that this is a legitimate request and permit him, on condition that the proper Ct-fee is paid within the time fixed, by the lower Ct, to convert the execution appln into a suit. He is also permitted to amend the execution petn by adding the necessary averments which he may be advised to add, as well as to add a prayer that if the Ct finds that the scheme itself has become unworkable, on account of the attitude taken by the parties, the Ct should amend the scheme and make it workable. The necessary consequences of converting the appln into a suit will follow. The order of the learned Subordinate Judge is therefore set aside and E. A. No. 271 of 1943 is remanded to the lower Ct to be disposed of according to law. Pending the suit, it is open to the Subordinate Judge to devise such means as he deems fit for the management of the property. But that would not give a right to the applts herein to ask for restitution of management. If the learned Subordinate Judge finds that resp 1 herein is a person who can be entrusted with the management during the course of the suit, he is at liberty to do so. The applts are entitled to their costs in this Ct. 6. The memorandum of cross objections la dismissed but, without costs. Order accordingly.