N.N. Mithal, J. - (1.) THIS appeal is directed against the order of the Insolvency Judge, Muzaffarnagar, allowing the Official Receiver's petition dated 16 -11 -1975 under Section 4 read with Section 53 of the Provincial Insolvency Act annulling the sale deed dated 11 -7 -1972 executed by Sanu, the insolvent, in favour of one Gyan. The appeal has been preferred by the transferee under the aforesaid sale deed and the only point that has been urged before me was that the application under Section 53 of the Insolvency Act was barred by time.
(2.) SRI . Bhattacharya, learned Counsel appearing for the Appellant, submitted that the order of adjudication in the cage was passed on 22 -3 -1975 by which Sanu was adjudged an insolvent on a creditor's petition. The transfer having taken place on 11 -7 -1972, the same was more than two years prior to the date of adjudging the debtor as insolvent. According to him, Section 53 prescribes a limitation of only two years and since the transfer was not within two years of the date of adjudication of the debtor as insolvent, the application was barred. This argument, however, has very little to commend itself. Bereft of unnecessary words, Section 53, as is relevant for the purposes of this appeal, would read as under; Any transfer of property...shall, if the transferor is adjudged insolvent on a petition presented within two years after the date of the transfer, be voidable as against the receiver and may be annulled by the Court. The portion which I have left out contained certain exceptions to this general rule and the case of the Appellant is that apart from the question of limitation, his case falls under one of the categories of exceptions provided in this Section. This matter, however, may be left to be dealt at a latter stage.
(3.) THE Section, as quoted by me above, if read in its natural sense, would mean that all those transfers which had been made within two years from the date of that particular petition on which the debtor has been declared an insolvent were liable to be annulled on being moved by the Official Receiver in this behalf. It would not be correct to interpret this Section as meaning that the transfer complained of must have taken place within two years from the date of the order of adjudication. The reading of this Section shows that it is the date of the petition for insolvency on which the debtor has been adjudged an insolvent which is material and must lie within two years of the date of the impugned transfer. It has, however, nothing to do with the actual date of adjudging the debtor as insolvent.;