B.Mukerji, J. - (1.) This is an application in revision against an order of the learned munsif of Jhansi, refusing to extend time to file a succession certificate.
(2.) The facts giving rise to this revision may be shortly stated thus: A suit was filed for money and judgment in that suit was made on the 18th of December, 1950. In that judgment it was said that the plaintiff's suit was to be decreed on condition that the plaintiff produced a succession certificate in his favour in respect of the document on the basis of which the plaintiff's suit had been filed, within one month from the date of the judgment, failing which the suit was to stand dismissed. To the plaintiff it became apparent shortly after that the period of one month would expire and that he would be unable to get the necessary succession certificate in his favour for being filed in court. An application for the grant of a Succession Certificate had been made promptly by the plaintiff but the grant of the Succession Certificate within time did not, obviously, lie in the plaintiff's hand for he had to abide his time along with other applicants in the court which granted such Succession Certificates. The plaintiff, as I have said, applied to the court within time for extending the time for bringing the Succession Certificate and filing it in court.
(3.) The learned Munsif, on the 26th of February 1951, refused to give time to the plaintiff not on the ground that the plaintiff's request for time was an unreasonable request or for any other similar cause but on the sole ground that the court had no jurisdiction to extend time or to grant any further time. The ground on which the learned Munsif entertained the aforementioned view was that the order which he had made on the 18th December 1950 took effect automatically and therefore the court had become functus officio and could therefore, make no further orders in the cause. (3a) The order which the learned Munsif made on the 18th December 1950 was a part of his judgment. According to Section 33 C. P. C. a decree has to follow the judgment and as a matter of fact, a decree is drawn up in accordance with the judgment. Section 214 of the Indian Succession Act (XXXIX of 1925) says this:-- "No court shall - (a) pass a decree against a debtor of a deceased person for payment of his debt to a person claiming on succession to be entitled to the effects of the deceased person or to any part thereof, or (b) ..... (not material for our purposes) except on the production by the person so claiming of( i) a probate or letters of administration evidencing the grant to him of administration to the estate of the deceased, or (ii), a certificate granted under Section 31 or Section 32 of the Administrator-General's Act, 1913 (III of 1913), and having the debt mentioned therein, or (iii) a succession certificate granted under Part X and having the debt specified therein, or (iv) a certificate granted under the Succession Certificate Act, 1889 (VII of 1889) or (v) a certificate granted under Bombay Regulation No. VIII of 1827, and, if granted after the first day of May, 1889, having the debt specified therein. (2) The word "debt" in Sub-section (1) includes any debt except rent, revenue or profits payable in respect of land used for agricultural purposes.;