Desai, C.J. - (1.) THIS is an appeal from a judgment of our brother Beg by which he quashed part of an order passed by the Board of Revenue. The father of the respondent was a zamindar of several villages including villages Rahimnagar Grant and Moondasawaran and had mortgaged the two villages with the appellant. On the enforcement of the U. P. Encumbered Estates Act the respondent applied for the benefit of the Act. The Special Judge passed a decree in the appellant's favour in respect of the mortgage sometime in 1941 and transmitted it to the Deputy Commissioner for execution. He also transmitted a list of the property belonging to the respondent which was liable to attachment or sale in execution of the decree. The liquidation proceedings became protracted on account of appeals from various orders and proceedings for reduction of the decretal amount under the Zamindars Debt Reduction Act. With effect from 1-7- 1952 the proprietary rights in the two villages of the respondent vested in the State and he became entitled to compensation under Section 66 of the Zaminduri Abolition and Land and Reforms Act.
(2.) SECTION 70 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act lays down that where before any Court or authority any proceeding is pend ing which directly or indirectly affects or is likely to affect the right of any person to receive the whole or part of the compensation it may require the Compensation Officer to place at its disposal the amount so payable and there upon the same shall be disposed of in accord ance with its orders. The respondent's right to compensation for the two villages was not directly or indirectly affected or likely to be affected by the proceeding pending before the Deputy Commissioner for execution of the decree passed by the Special Judge in the appellant's favour and he did not (sic) the Compensation Officer to place (sic) disposal the amount of the compensation. On the passing of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act SECTIONs 19(2) and 23-A were added in the U. P. Encumbered Estates Act. SECTION 19 (2) re quires the Special Judge to inform the Collector of the amount of the secured debt which is not legally recoverable otherwise than out of the compensation and rehabilitation grant payable to the landlord in respect of the mortgaged estate and of the nature and extent of the pro perty mentioned in the notice under SECTION 11 which he has found to be liable to attachment or sale in satisfaction of the debts of the appli cant. Section 23-A imposes upon the Collector the duty of requiring the Compensation Officer and Rehabilitation Grants Officer to place at his disposal in pursuance of Section 70 of the U. P, Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act the amount of compensation money and rehabilitation grant payable to the landlord in respect of his proprietary rights in land reported to be liable to attachment or sale under Section 19 (2). No action was taken by the Deputy Commissioner in compliance with this provision of Section 23-A. The appellant himself, who was interested in seeing that the Collector required the Compensation Officer to place at his disposal the compensation money, also failed to bring to his notice the provisions of Section 23-A of the Encumbered Estates Act and Section 70 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act. The respondent as an intermediary was entitled to the compensation money and in 1957 took possession of it through zamindari abolition bonds from the Compensation Officer. Then in 1959 the appellant made an application before the Deputy Commissioner in proceedings for execution of the decree in his favour passed by the Special Judge for a direction to the respondent to return the bonds taken by him from the Compensation Officer and to render account for them to the Court, for attachment of his innoveable and immoveable property to extent of the amount of the bonds in the event of his failure to return them and certain other directions with which we are not concerned in this special appeal. He contended that the decree passed in his favour was liable to be discharged out of the compensation money payable to the respondent, that the respondent fraudulently received the bonds from the Compensation Officer without informing him of this fact and that he was not entitled to the bonds because they were meant for execution of the decree passed under the U. P. Encumbered Estates Act. The Deputy Commissioner dismissed the application saying that after the delivery of the bonds by the Compensation Officer to the respondent it was impossible to take any action as required by Section 70 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act read with Section 23-A of the U. P. Encumbered Estates Act. His order was maintained on appeal by the Commissioner. The appellant then applied to the Board to revise the order of the Deputy Commissioner and the Commissioner. Under Section 46 (2) the Board may on an application filed by any person concerned on any of the grounds mentioned in Section 100 (1) of the Code of Civil Procedure "call for the record of proceedings of any case under this Act which....has been decided by" a Deputy Commissioner or a Commissioner and pass such order thereon "consistent with the provisions herein contained as it thinks fit". The Board of Revenue allowed the application and directed the Deputy Commissioner to take action under one or both of the following modes for liquidation of the debt due from the respondent:-- (1) Direct all Treasuries to stop payment of money on instalments as they fell due on Zamindari Abolition bonds. (2) Attach moveable and immoveable property belonging to the respondent for liquidation of the debt. There was one more direction with which we are not concerned.
(3.) THE respondent feeling aggrieved by this order of the Board of Revenue applied for certiorari which has been granted by our brother Beg. His order is challenged by the appellant in this appeal. The charge levelled by the appellant against the respondent that he acted fraudulently in taking delivery of the bonds is groundless. The respondent was entitled to the bonds under Section 66 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act and in the absence of an order under Section 70 of the Act or Section 23-A of the Encumbered Estates Act the Compensation Officer was bound to deliver them to him. He was relieved from this obligation only if a direction had been given to him under Section 70 or Section 23-A by the Deputy Commissioner. It is to be noted that he was relieved from the obligation only if such a direction had been given to him and not by the mere fact that such a direction could be given to him. Admittedly no such direction had been given to him and, therefore, he was not relieved from the obligation and the respondent was entitled to take delivery of the bonds. When he got what he was entitled to, it could not possibly be said that he committed fraud. He was not required to inform the Compensation Officer that a direction could be given to him under Section 70 read with Section 23-A by the Deputy Commissioner because this fact was, as explained above, immaterial.;