Case: Shri Manna Lal And Another Vs. Collector Of Jhalawar And Others

1. The appellants are traders of Jhalawar. Respondent No. 1, the Collector of Jhalawar, served on the appellants a notice under S. 6 of the Rajasthan Public Demands Recovery Act, 1952, hereafter called the Act, for the recovery from them as a public demand, of Rs. 2,24,607/6/6 said to be due on account of loans taken by them from the Jhalawar State Bank. The appellants filed a petition under S. 8 of the Act contending, among other things, that the amount sought to be recovered from them was not a public demand. Respondent No. 1 appears to have called upon the appellants to prove that it was not a public demand. The appellants without proceeding further before respondent No. 1, filed a petition in the High Court of Rajasthan for the issue of a writ quashing the proceedings under the Public Demands Recovery Act. The High Court dismissed the petition but granted a certificate that the case was fit for an appeal to this Court. Hence the present appeal.

Reasoning: We are unable to agree that for this reason it could not be an institution belonging to the State. There was nothing to prevent the Jhalawar State carrying on a commercial under-taking. If it did so, the assets of that under-taking would be those of the State and, in the circumstances earlier mentioned, must now be held to be vested in the State of RajasthanIt is clear, however, from the rules that the Bank was not the property of the board. Again the board was constituted from time to time by the Ruler and the majority of its members were officers of the State. This would show that the Ruler was in full control of the management of the Bank as a State undertaking. It is true that the rules indicate that the Bank might sue or be sued in respect of transactions made by or with it. That, however, would not indicate that the Bank had a separate identity. The rules in this connection only indicate in what name suits could be brought by or against the States banking business. On the other hand, it is perfectly clear that the capital of the Bank was derived solely from the funds of the Jhalawar State. No. part of it was contribute by anyone else8. This contention which is based on the Notifications, earlier mentioned, does not seem to us to be well founded. We will assume for the present purpose that the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. is not a department of the Government of Rajasthan State. The question is whether the effect of these Notifications, which were two in number, was to vest the dues of the Jhalawar State Bank in the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. The first Notification is dated February 15, 1951. It stated that the Government of the State of Rajasthan then had decided to transfer, among others, the Jhalawar State Bank, to the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. It was contended that by this Notification the assets of the Jhalawar State Bank were transferred to the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. We do not think that was the effect of this NotificationIt is clear from these provisions that the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. was being authorised "on behalf of the State", that is, the Government of the State of Rajasthan, to recover the amounts due to the Jhalawar State Bank. The transfer of the latter Bank to the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. was to be subject to this qualification that its dues would remain the dues of the Government of the State of Rajasthan and would only be recovered by the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. as the agent of that Government. The last paragraph set out above emphasises this position. It preserves the right of the Government of the State of Rajasthan to recover the amounts due to the Jhalawar State Bank in accordance with any law that might be made after the date of the Notification. The position then is that under this Notification the debts due to the Jhalawar Bank were not transferred to the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. and remained payable to the Government of Rajasthan. The other Notification is dated April 16, 1952, and it repeats that the banks mentioned in the earlier Notification, including the Jhalawar State Bank "will be merged in the Bank of Rajasthan Limited". It is said that the effect of this Notification was in any event to cancel the earlier Notification, in so far as the latter preserved the power of the State to collect the debts of the Jhalawar State Bank. We are wholly unable to agree. This Notification only reiterates the intention of the Government of the State of Rajasthan to merge the bank named, in the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. It says nothing specifically about the dues of these banks or as to their recoveries, with regard to which, therefore, the provisions of the previous Notification must have effect. Furthermore, there is nothing to show that the debts due to the Jhalawar State Bank were by any document specifically transferred to or vested in the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. and thereupon became its property. That being so there is no basis for the contention that the debts due from the appellants are now due to the Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. in its own right. It would follow that such debts remained debts due to the Government of the State of RajasthanThis contention is wholly unfounded. It appears that the loans were granted by the Jhalawar State Bank to the appellants on their own applications. In each application the appellants stated that they wanted a loan from the Jhalawar State Bank and promised to repay it with interest at the rate mentioned in it. By these applications the appellants also proposed to hypothecate various properties belonging to them as security for the due repayment of the loans taken. They signed the applications and the receipts, which latter also bore the signatures of the officers of the Bank in token of the sanction of the loan. In our view, the money payable by the appellants was payable under these applications and receipts and was, therefore, payable under written instruments or agreements. A point was sought to be made that in each case there were two documents, namely, the application by the appellants and the receipt for the a public demand as defined in the Act, required one instrument. It is enough to say in regard to this contention that the Act does not say that the money shall be due under a single instrument. It is well known that in statute a singular includes the plural. In any case, the two documents constituted the written agreement between the parties and that is enough to satisfy the requirement of the Act, even if read, in the way suggested by the appellantsIt seems to us however that this is no defect. In the case of loans due, there is no question of any period for which the demand is due. Obviously, the requirement as to the specification of the period was meant to apply where the demand consisted of a claim for revenue or rent or the like, which could be due for a period. It is clear to us that the requirement as to stating the period for which the demand in due, as appears from the prescribed form, does not arise in the case of a loan due to the Government which is a public demand within the Act and in such a case no question of stating the period arises. The certificate was not, therefore, defective12. We have now discussed all the points raised in this appeal and are unable, for the reasons earlier mentioned, to find merit in any of them. In the result we come to the conclusion that the amount claimed from the appellants was a public demand within the meaning of the Act and was legally recoverable by the impugned proceedings.