Umrao Begam vs The Land Mortgage Bank of India

Pearson, J.—The lower Court''s view that Section 9 of the Rent Act applies to private transfers of occupancy-rights only and not to sales of such rights in execution of decree is, in the general form in which it is stated, opposed to the Full Bench ruling of this Court, dated 19th February 1877 in Ablakh Rai v. Udit Narain Rai ILR 1 All 353. But in the case out of which that ruling arose the person who sought to bring to sale an occupancy right possessed by his judgment-debtor in a holding was not the zamindar, the proprietor of the land. In the present case the decree-holder is himself the zamindar. The section appears to have been enacted in the interest of landholders, who may presumably waive the privilege it confers on them. It would be unreasonable to hold that a landholder should not be free to cause the sale in execution of his own decree of the occupancy right of his own judgment-debtor in land belonging to himself. Such a case cannot fall within the scope of the Full Bench ruling above mentioned. We therefore dismiss the appeal with costs.