- (1.) The sole point for decision in the present case is whether the executing Court was justified in declining to set aside the sale of a certain house which was made in contravention of the provisions of section 17 of the Evacuee Property Act.
(2.) The facts of the case are very simple indeed. One Mohammad Khalil had mortgaged a certain house situate at Amritsar with one Seth Rattan Chand. On the 4th May, 1948 Seth Rattan Chand brought a suit for the recovery of the mortgage money and was able to obtain a preliminary decree on the 28th December, 1948 and the final decree on the 27th July, 1949. The house in question was brought to sale on the 14th February, 1951 and was purchased by one Udham Singh for a sum of Rs. 2,125. The sale was confirmed in favour of the auction-purchaser on the 17th March, 1951. Four months later i.e. on the 29th July, 1951 the Custodian of Evacuee Property put in an application for the setting aside of the sale on the ground that the house in question was evacuee property and the sale of evacuee property was prohibited by section 17 of the Evacuee Property Act, 1950. The executing Court dismissed the application on the ground that the application did not lie as it had been presented after the 17th October, 1950 i.e., the date mentioned in sub-section (2) of section 17 of the Act of 1950. It is against this order that the present revision has been preferred.
(3.) Section 17 as it appears in the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 is in the following terms :- "17 Exemption from attachment, sale, etc. - (1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, no property which has vested in the Custodian shall be liable to attachment, distress or sale in execution of an order of a Court or of any other authority, and no injunction in respect of any such property shall be granted by any Court or other authority. (2) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, any attachment or injunction subsisting on the commencement of this Act in respect of any evacuee property which has vested in the Custodian shall cease to have effect on such commencement, and any transfer of evacuee property under orders of a Court or any other authority made after the 1st day of March, 1947, shall be set aside, if an application is made to such Court or authority by or at the instance of the Custodian within six months from the commencement of this Act.";