P.S. Ramanathan Chettiar (deceased) and Another vs M.G. Mohideen Saheb

Phillips, J.—In this case the appellant is decree-holder in O.S. No. 428 of 1907 in the Madras City Civil Court. He attempted to execute

the decree on several occasions in 1911, 1914, 1917 and finally just as the decree was about to be barred by limitation, he filed the present

petition E.P. No. 152 of 1920., In that he asked for the arrest of the judgment-debtor and also for the appointment of a Receiver in order to

collect a debt due to the judgment-debtor. The arrest was ordered and apparently batta was paid for this arrest on five different occasions but on

no occasion was the debtor found. Meanwhile an order had been made appointing a Receiver for the collection of the debt. After these many

attempts at arrest had failed, the petition was rejected on the 29th of October, 1920 but it was restored to file on the 2nd of December, 1920 so

far as the application for the appointment of Receiver was concerned, but the Judge refused to issue any further warrants for arrest. An appeal was

made against that order but was dismissed by this Court on the ground that the appellant had other remedies. He finally obtained a certain sum of

money by filing a suit against the judgment-debtor''s debtor but only realised a sum of Rs. 754, the decree amount being over Rs. 4,000. He then

put in another petition praying that the judgment-debtor might be arrested, C.M.P. No. 813 of 1921, but that petition was dismissed on the ground

that it was a fresh application and not a continuation of the former application and was therefore barred as being more than twelve years from the

date of the decree. An appeal has been filed against that order as well as against the final order dismissing the execution petition and it is urged that,

firstly, C.M.P. No. 813 must be treated as a continuation of E.P. No. 152 and it is therefore in time and secondly, that it is in time by reason of the

fraud of the judgment-debtor who has been evading arrest.

The first point is one of considerable difficulty and we have been referred to a number of decisions dealing with the point, but we think that it is

unnecessary to determine it in these proceedings because the appellant must succeed on the second point. It has been held so far back as in

Annamalai v. Rangaswami ILR (1883) M 365 that, when a judgment-debtor is able to pay and evades arrest in execution of the decree, he is

guilty of fraud within the meaning of Section 48 or Section 230 as it then was, of the Civil Procedure Code. This was affirmed in Syed Muhamad

Rowther v. Somasundaram Chettiar (1920) 12 LW 710 and the only case to the contrary is Seshachalam Chetti Vs. Rajam Chetty, which was

expressly dissented from in Syed Muhamad Rowther v. Somasundaram Chettiar (1920) 12 LW 710. We agree with the view taken in Syed

Muhamad Rowther v. Somasundaram Chettiar (1920) 12 LW 710 that the evasion of arrest is fraud within the meaning of Section 48 and the

question is whether there has been such an evasion in the present case. It must be conceded that in the lower Court this point was not specifically

urged, for it is not dealt with at all in the judgment, but there is a ground taken in the Memorandum of Appeal and there have been assertions of this

evasion of arrest in the course of the proceedings, more especially in the affidavit of the 29th of November, 1920, in which it was alleged that the

judgment-debtor was evading arrest and that when steps were taken to enter his house a plea that gosha ladies were inside was raised and no one

was allowed to enter. Apart from this affidavit we have the fact that a warrant was taken out on five occasions and returned unexecuted. It is

suggested now that the judgment-debtor was un-aware of these proceedings and was not in any way evading arrest and in fact, the judgment-

debtor has appeared here and has asked for permission to file an affidavit to the effect that he was in Madras at the time the warrants were issued

and was living quietly in the mosque and never attempted to evade arrest. We see, however, that notice of the execution petition was sent to him

and it is quite clear that he received that notice and was represented by a Vakil in the lower Court who applied for an adjournment for putting in a

counter-affidavit on the 27th of August, 1920. On the adjourned date, the Vakil reported that he had no instructions and the judgment-debtor was

still absent. Two further warrants were issued after that and again the judgment-debtor could not be found. In these circumstances, we think that it

is conclusively proved that the judgment-debtor was keeping out of the way in order to avoid arrest, and it would be useless to allow him now to

put in any affidavit with a view to showing that he was perfectly innocent of any idea of fraud. We must hold that he was evading arrest in execution

of this petition, and consequently u/s 48, the period of limitation is extended and this petition is in time. The appeal is therefore allowed. C.M.P.

No. 813 will be referred for fresh disposal. Respondent will pay appellant''s costs in C.M.A. No. 47 of 1922. No orders are necessary in C.M.A.

No. 48 of 1922.