Case: Anandilal and Another Vs. Ram Narain and Others

view of the decision of the Privy Council in Kirtyanand Singh v. Prithi Chand Lal, these decisions were no longer good law. We find it difficult to accept the reasoning.The decision of the Privy Council in Kirtyanand Singhs case does not lay down any contrary proposition. There, the point appears to have arisen from an order passed by the Court in the Raj Suit to the effect that "the decree-holder were to wait for some time for payment". That order was subsequently set aside having been in operation for about seven months. The decree-holders contention was that they were entitled to the benefit of s. 15 (1) with respect to the aforesaid period of seven months. Lord Tomlin, delivering the judgment of the Judicial Committee, construed the aforesaid order as meaning not an order staying execution within s. 15 (1) of the Limitation Act, and observed:Now the first thing to be observed is that at the time when that order was made there was in fact no application for execution pending at all. It was an order again made in the Raj Suit and not in the rent suits; it was all order made on application by the decree-holders seeking leave to proceed against property in the hands of the receiver in the Raj suit. It was an order which did not stay at all, but simply said that so far as that application in that suit was concerned the appellants were to wait. That seems to their Lordships not to be in any sense within the meaning of the section a stay of the execution by injunction or order." (Emphasis supplied)5. In Lala Baijnath Prasad &Ors. v. Nursinghdas Gujrati the Calcutta High Court appears to have adopted a middle course, Chakravarti, C. J. delivering the judgment of the Court observed:"If the decree-holder is prevented altogether from executing his decree, it is but reasonable that time should not run against him so long as he remains disabled and the section says so. But there seems to be no reason why the section should be construed as meaning that even when the injunction or order is limited to one or some of several judgment-debtors or to one or some of their properties or to some particular mode of execution and even when the decree holder is left free to proceed against the other JUDGMENT-debtors or other properties or in other way, he will be entitled to the benefit of the section.The learned Chief Justice observed that in such a case the execution of the decree is not stayed but only execution in certain ways and against certain persons or properties is prevented, and then added."But assuming stayed include stayed in part, the utmost that can be claimed under the terms of the section is that if a decree-holder is restrained for a time from proceeding against some particular judgment-debtor or some particular property or in some particular way, and when the bar is lifted, he applies for execution against the same judgment debtor or the same property or in the same way, he will be entitled to exclude the period during which he remained i.e. strained."6. We feel that there is no, justification for placing a rigid construction on a beneficent provision like s. 15(1) of the Limitation Act. It is not necessary for us to go into the history of the legislation which has been dealt with at length in many of the decisions laying down that s 48 of the Code is controlled by 3. 15(1) of the Limitation Act. All that we need say is that both the enactments have throughout been treated as supplementary to each other, and concern with procedural law. It is also true that in construing statutes of limitation considerations of hardship and anomaly are out of place. Nevertheless, it is, we think, permissible to adopt a beneficent construction of a rule of limitation if alternative constructions are possible. It ;9 plain on the terms of s. 15(1) that the word "execution" appearing in the collocation of words "the execution of which has keen stayed" must be construed in a liberal and broad sense . As observed by the Calcutta High Court in Sreenath Roys case, supra, the words "execution of the decree" mean the enforcement of the decree by what is known as "process of execution".Agreeing with the Full Bench, we are inclined to the view that the word "execution" in s. 15(1) embraces all the appropriate means by which a decree is enforced. Ot includes all process and proceeding in aid of, or supplemental to, execution. We find no rational basis for adopting a narrow and restricted construction on a beneficent provision like the one contained in s. 15(1). There is no reason why s .15 (1) should be given a restricted meaning as allowing the benefit to a decree-holder where there is a complete or absolute stay o f execution and not a partial stay i.e. a stay which makes the decree altogether inexecutable. Nor can we subscribe to the proposition that in cases of partial stay, the benefit under s. 15(1) can be had only where an execution application is directed against the same judgment-debtor or the same property, as against whom an execution was previously stayed. Stay of any process of execution is therefore stay of execution within the meaning of the section. Where an injunction or order has prevented the decree-holder from executing the decree, then irrespective of the particular stage of execution, or the particular property against which, or the particular judgment-debtor against whom, execution was stay ed, the effect of such injunction or order is to prolong the life of the decree itself by the. period during which the injunction or order remained in force. The majority view to the contrary taken-by some of the High Courts overlooks the well settled principle that when the law prescribes more than one modes of execution, it is for the decree-holder to choose which of them he will pursue.7

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]We feel that there is no, justification for placing a rigid construction on a beneficent provision like s. 15(1) of the Limitation Act. It is not necessary for us to go into the history of the legislation which has been dealt with at length in many of the decisions laying down that s 48 of the Code is controlled by 3. 15(1) of the Limitation Act. All that we need say is that both the enactments have throughout been treated as supplementary to each other, and concern with procedural law. It is also true that in construing statutes of limitation considerations of hardship and anomaly are out of place. Nevertheless, it is, we think, permissible to adopt a beneficent construction of a rule of limitation if alternative constructions are possible. It ;9 plain on the terms of s. 15(1) that the word "execution" appearing in the collocation of words "the execution of which has keen stayed" must be construed in a liberal and broad sense . As observed by the Calcutta High Court in Sreenath Roys case, supra, the words "execution of the decree" mean the enforcement of the decree by what is known as "process of execution".Agreeing with the Full Bench, we are inclined to the view that the word "execution" in s. 15(1) embraces all the appropriate means by which a decree is enforced. Ot includes all process and proceeding in aid of, or supplemental to, execution. We find no rational basis for adopting a narrow and restricted construction on a beneficent provision like the one contained in s. 15(1). There is no reason why s .15 (1) should be given a restricted meaning as allowing the benefit to a decree-holder where there is a complete or absolute stay o f execution and not a partial stay i.e. a stay which makes the decree altogether inexecutable. Nor can we subscribe to the proposition that in cases of partial stay, the benefit under s. 15(1) can be had only where an execution application is directed against the same judgment-debtor or the same property, as against whom an execution was previously stayed. Stay of any process of execution is therefore stay of execution within the meaning of the section. Where an injunction or order has prevented the decree-holder from executing the decree, then irrespective of the particular stage of execution, or the particular property against which, or the particular judgment-debtor against whom, execution was stay ed, the effect of such injunction or order is to prolong the life of the decree itself by the. period during which the injunction or order remained in force. The majority view to the contrary taken-by some of the High Courts overlooks the well settled principle that when the law prescribes more than one modes of execution, it is for the decree-holder to choose which of them he will pursue.