TMI Blog1966 (9) TMI 157X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s a result of these transactions the position in 1903 was that the predecessors-in-title of the respondents stood in the position of mortgagors subject to the said sub-mortgage and the predecessors-in-title of the appellants stood in the position of mortgagors of the said lands to the extent of the 3/4th share therein and the rest of the Vdh share therein remained with the said Teja. On April 14, 1903 the said Hira Singh and Ganga Sahai, the predecessors-in-title of the respondents, filed a suit being Suit No. 31 of 1903 against the said Badam and others for redemption and for possession of the said lands. The said Badam, Teja and others, the predecessors-in-title of the appellants, thereupon brought a suit being Suit No. 50 of 1903 for redemption against the said Hira Singh and others on payment of ₹ 856 and odd. The Trial Judge by his judgment, dated August 31, 1903 decreed Suit No. 31 of 1903 and dismissed Suit No. 50 of 1903. In appeal, however, the appellate Court reversed the said judgment and decree and passed a decree for redemption and possession on payment of ₹ 8,839-13-0 in favour of the predecessors-in-title of the appellants and the said Teja and against th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d documents constituted acknowledgments within the meaning of Section 19. The respondents then took the matter to the High Court by way of second appeal. The learned Single Judge of the High Court allowed the appeal holding that the said statements were not sufficient to constitute acknowledgments and, therefore, the suit was barred by limitation and dismissed it. Thereupon the appellants filed a Letters Patent appeal which met the same fate. This appeal by certificate challenges the correctness of the said judgment and decree passed by the High Court. 4. The period of limitation for redemption of the said mortgages being sixty years the period in respect of the last of them expired as early as 1929 but the appellants relied on certain statements in the said four documents alleging that they constituted acknowledgments by the predecessors-in-title of the respondents and which gave them a fresh period of limitation saving their suit from being time-barred. The contention urged on behalf of the appellants in the Courts below and repeated by Mr. Mishra before us was that an admission of jural. relationship of a mortgagor and a mortgagee was by itself sufficient to constitute an ack ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssed to a person other than the person entitled to the property or right. 7. The section requires (i) an admission or acknowledgment (ii) that such acknowledgment must be in respect of a liability in respect of a property or right, (iii) that it must be made before the expiry of the period of limitation, and (iv) that it should be in writing and signed by the party against whom such property or right is claimed. Under the Explanation such an acknowledgment need not specify the exact nature of the property or the right claimed. It is manifest that the statement relied on must amount to an admission or acknowledgment and that acknowledgment must be in respect of the property or right claimed by the party relying on such a statement. 8. A large number of decisions were cited at the bar in support of the rival contentions. One line of these decision? lays down that an admission by a mortgagee in a pleading or a subsequent transaction that he holds the property as a mortgagee is a sufficient acknowledgment that the maker of the statement thinks and believes that he is liable to be redeemed at the date of the statement. On the basis of this principle an application by a judgment-d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and that for this purpose the consciousness and intention must be as clear as they would be in a contract itself. (Supra) the High Court held that where circumstances are such that the person making a statement has his mind directed to the question of the existence of the debt and he represents that the debt exists or represents facts consistent only with the inference that he admits the existence of the debt such a representation would be deemed to be a sufficient acknowledgment. The statement in question in that case was by a purchaser of equity of redemption in Court proceedings taken against the mortgagor, viz., that the purchaser had bought properties described as subject to a mortgage in favour of the plaintiff. In Maniram v. Rupchand, (1908) ILR 33 Cal 1047 (PC), it was held that Section 19 required a definite admission of liability, that the section did not lay down that an acknowledgment would be available from a mere admission of jural relationship and that such a result depended upon the language of the document and the surrounding circumstances in which it is made. There is thus a clear divergence of opinion not only amongst the different High Courts but also sometimes ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... age. But the statement in question must relate to the subsisting liability or the right claimed. Where the statement is relied on as expressing jural relationship it must show that it was made with the intention of admitting such jural relationship subsisting at the time when it was made. It follows that where a statement setting out jural relationship is made clearly without intending to admit its existence an intention to admit cannot be imposed on its maker by an involved or a far-fetched process of reasoning. 11. Do the statements relied on admit or acknowledge subsisting mortgages and the right to redeem or the liability of the maker thereof to be redeemed ? Exhibit E, dated April 8, 1902 is the mortgage-deed executed by Parmeshwardas in favour of Badam for ₹ 200. The document refers only to one out of the said seven mortgages. Though it refers to the mortgage in favour of Dharamdas it does so for the purpose of describing the interest Parmeshwardas was mortgaging in favour of Badam and of his own right of redeeming the mortgage. The said mortgage thus is set out for showing the nature of the interest which he was mortgaging as security for the said debt of ₹ 20 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
