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TMI Blog1966 (1) TMI 76X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s. 5 and 6 of the Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act which were extended to Delhi on June 8, 1956. On January 17, 1946, Hazarilal (predecessor of respondents 1 to 5) and one Jagat Narain (respondent 6) executed a simple mortgage deed for ₹ 50,000 with interest at 9% per annum or in default of payment of interest for 3 months at Re. 1 per cent per month for the period of default. As the mortgagors made default in payment of interest and also did not pay anything out of the mortgaged amount a suit was filed for enforcement of the mortgage by sale of properties. The claim was for ₹ 76,692/9/8, by calculating interest at 9 per cent per annum for the first 3 months and at 12 pet cent per annum till institution of the suit and allowin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... elhi on June 8, 1956 under s. 2 of Part C States (Laws) Act, 1950 (30 of 1950) and claimed that interest in excess of 71 per cent per annum could not be awarded in this suit. We may, at this stage, read the relevant sections. Section 3 of the Usurious Loans Act, in so far as it is material to our purpose, reads as follows :- "3. Re-opening of transactions. (1)Notwithstanding anything in the Usuary Laws Repeal Act, 1855, where, in any suit to which this Act applies, whether heard ex parte or otherwise, the Court has reason to believe,- (a) that the interest is excessive; and (b) the Court may exercise all or any of the following powers, namely, may,- (i)re-open the transaction, take an account between the parties, and relieve the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erest in the case of unsecured loans; Provided that the court shall not deem interest in excess of the above rates to be excessive if the loan has been advanced by the State Bank of India or any bank included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, or any banking company registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1913 prior to the first day of April, 1937 or any cooperative society registered under the Bombay Cooperative Societies Act, 1925, as extended to the State of Delhi." Section 6 of the Act gave retrospective effect to the above provisions by enacting "6. Retrospective effect.- The provisions of this part of the Act shall apply to all suits pending on or instituted after the commencement of this Ac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... btors who had applied in the High Court were ordered to make good the court fee on. ₹ 7,127. After sundry unsuccessful proceedings which included. an: application for review and another for a certificate, the decree-holders filed this appeal after obtaining special leave of this Court- In this appeal it is contended on behalf of the decree holder-& that s. 5 of the Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act can only apply to a suit instituted or pending after the section comes -into force and 'not in an appeal after the suit has ended in a decree. It is farther; contended that this will be all the more so, because the section itself is made retrospective for suits pending on or instituted after the commencement of the Act and thus cannot affec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al cannot take into account a new law, brought into existence after the judgment appealed from has been tendered, because the rights of the litigants in an appeal are determined under the law in force at the date of the suit. Even before the days of Coke, whose maxim-a new law ought to be prospective, not retrospective in its operation-is oft-quoted, courts have looked with disfavour upon laws which take away vested Tights or affect pending cases. Matters of procedure are, how,ever, different and the law affecting procedure is always retrospective'. But it does not mean that there is an absolute rule of inviolability of substantive rights. If the new law speaks in language, which, expressly or by clear intendment, takes in even pending matt ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gment in the suit. An appeal has been said to be "the right of entering a superior court, and invoking its aid and interposition to redress the error of the court below." -(Per Lord Westbury in Attorney General v. Sillem(11 E.R. 1200 at 1209). The only difference between a suit and an appeal is this that an appeal "only reviews and corrects the proceedings in a cause already constituted but does not create the cause." As it is intended to interfere in the cause by its means, it is -a part of it, and in connection with some matters and some statutes it is said that an appeal is a continuation of a suit. In the present Act the intention is to give relief in respect of excessive interest in a suit which is pending and a pre ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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