P.N.Mookerjee, J. - (1.) In or about November, 1936, the Corporation of Calcutta recovered seven preliminary charge decrees against the respondents or their predecessors for consolidated rates under the Calcutta Municipal Act. These decrees were made final some time in September, 1937 and thereafter they were put into execution in March, 1940.
(2.) In the year 1942, two of the judgment-debtors Krishna Mohan Kundu and Mohini Mohan Kundu applied before the Mathurapur Debt Settlement Board for settlement of their debts including the above decretal dues and, on receipt of the notice under Section 34, Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act, the Civil Court stayed further proceedings in the execution cases pending before it and when eventually an award was made by the Board in favour of the applicants before it, the execution cases were struck off by the Court on 18-12-1942.
(3.) About three years later, the decree-holder Corporation prayed for fresh execution of the several decrees mentioned above and also applied in the alternative under Section 151, Civil P. C. read with Section 181, Limitation Act for reviving the execution cases of 1940 and proceeding with the same. The ground given in the application was that the Board's Award was without jurisdiction as the Corporation's dues for rates were not debts within the meaning of the Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act.;