KALAVAGUNTA NARASINGA RAO GARU Vs. VUPPULAPATI RANGAYYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner brought this suit on a promissory note and relied on two indorsements to save limitation. The first was: On the 3 of Chitra Suddba of the year Bhava the amount paid in cash is Rs. 10 (Rupees Ten only). With regard to a payment made a little less than three years later, the indorsement was: The amount paid on the first day of Phalguna Suddha of the year Dhatu is Rs. 2 (Two rupees).

(2.) The defendants remained ex parte but the District Munsiff dismissed the suit on the ground that the indorsements did not save. limitation under Section 20 of the Limitation Act.

(3.) It is not denied by the petitioner that the learned District Munsiff was right in saying that Section 20 of the Limitation Act did not save the suit from the bar of limitation; but he contends that the learned District Munsiff did not consider, as he should have done, whether these endorsements saved limitation under Section 19 of. the Limitation Act as. acknowledgments. There can be no doubt that if the petitioner had added to his statement of payments that they were made towards the suit debt, these endorsements would have served as written acknowledgments which would save limitation; but I do not see how bare statements of payments can serve as acknowledgments of a debt. If limitation is to be saved under Section 19, one must be able to read into an endorsement not merely that a payment has been made but that a further sum is admitted to be due. In no ease cited before me has such a bare statement of payment been interpreted as an acknowledgment. The nearest approach to it is the judgment of Sir John Beaumont, C.J., in Tayerali V/s. Garabad Sadu A.I.R. 1939 Bom. 252. There were two indorsements in that case. One was that the debtor had given certain bajri of the value of Rs. 54 towards vasul and then again at the bottom of the document it was written "Rs. 54 paid as vasul". These indorsements were construed by Sir John Beaumont, C.J., in these words: There is a payment of Rs. 54 on account of the debt, which must mean the debt secured by the document on which this indorsement was made. I am unable to read in the present indorsements any suggestion that a further sum is admitted to be due by the defendants to the plaintiff.