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TMI Blog1975 (4) TMI 139X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... before the 1st day of April 1970. 2. The learned Civil Judge, Senior Division Amravati, by his order dated 23rd October 1972 allowed the application filed by the applicant -creditor under Section 5 of the Limitation Act and condoned the delay. Therefore he further held that the debt is not extinguished Against this order the present revision application is filed by the debtors. 3. Shri Chandurkar, the learned counsel for the applicant contended before me that though under Section 3 of the Act a date has been specified before which an application is to be filed, it cannot be said that any period of limitation, has been prescribed by the said section within the meaning of Section 29(2) of the Limitation Act, therefore, according to Shri Chandurkar, the provisions of Section 5 of the Limitation Act will have no application to such proceedings. For this proposition he has relied upon a decision of this Court in Shankar v. Chunilal AIR1959Bom294. He further contended that even assuming that a period of limitation has been prescribed, application of the provisions of the Limitation Act, including Section 5 are expressly excluded, In this context he relied up ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y the Legislature as it was though expedient to provide relief to certain agricultural debtors in the Vidarbha Region of State of Maharashtra. Ever prior to the enactment of the present legislation, there were statutes on the statute book which provided same relief to the agricultural debtors. By Section 52 of the present Act, the Madhya Pradesh Temporary Postponement of Execution of Decrees Act, 1956 was repealed. It has also repealed the Maharashtra (Vidarbha /Region) Agricultural Debtors Relief Ordinance. 1969 was enacted for giving relief to the agricultural debtors in the Vidarbha Region of the State of Maharashtra. This legislation, therefore, was enacted as a piece of beneficial legislation meant for the protection of the agriculturists and to provide certain reliefs to agricultural debtors. Under Section 3 of the act, the debtor or his creditor is entitled to file an application to a Court for the adjustment of the debts of the debtor. The Act then provides for penal consequences in case the procedure prescribed by the Act is not followed. Prior to the coming into force of the present legislation, there were four Acts in force in the State for the relief of the agricultural ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e which a application could be filed. If the Legislature wanted to exclude the date, namely 1st April 1970, it would have said so by saying that the application should be filed on or before 31st March 1970. In such case it was not necessary for the legislature to use the words that it should be filed before 1st April 1970. If that day was intended to be excluded. Therefore, in my opinion, exclusive reliance on the bare dictionary meaning of the word before will be of no assistance in properly understanding the meaning of the word before used in the section. Section 3 of the act specifies a period before which an application could be filed. The provision in a loose sense provides for a period of limitation. The provision of the Act also deprives or restricts the right of a creditor to have recourse to a legal remedy for recovery of his debt, and therefore, it is well settled that where a language is ambiguous, that construction will have to be preferred which will preserve such a remedy to one which will preserve such a remedy to one which bars or defeats it. Normally a Court should avoid an interpretation upon a Statute of this type which may have a penalizing effect unless it is d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the present legislation that an application is not filed by that time. If the provisions of the Act are not followed in this behalf then Section 13 lays down that the debt itself shall stand extinguished. Therefore, to some extent it curtails the rights of the creditors to recover their debts if the procedure prescribed by the Act is not followed. In this view of the matter, in my opinion, the phraseology used in Section 3 of the Act will have also to be construed in the context in which this word occurred as well as the object of the Statute. As observed earlier, initially an application under Section 3 of the Act could have been filed before the 1st Day of October 1969. Thereafter by Maharashtra Ordinance No. III of 1969 Section 3 of the Act was amended and the figures, letters and words 1st day of April 1970 were substituted in place in figures. letters and words 1st Day of October 1969. The Statement of Objects and Reasons appended to this Ordinance reads as under Z: Under Sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Maharashtra (Vidarbha Region ) Agricultural Debtors's Relief Act, 1969 a debtor or his creditor may, subject to the provisions of the Act, make an a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d on the 1st April 1970 and it will obviously be within limitation. in my opinion, therefore, having regard to the placement of the word 'before' the context in which it is used and the subject of the enactment the word before as is used in Sec. 3 of the Act will have to be understood as 'upto'. 10. In Section 6 of the Act a period of limitation is prescribed for recording settlement. The phraseology used is within thirty days from the date of such settlement. Further Section 13 of the Act reads as under: 13. Every debt due from a debtor in respect of which no application has been made under Section 3 before the date specified in that section or in respect of which no application for recording a settlement is made under Section 6 within the period specified in that said Section 6, or in respect of which an application made to the Court is withdrawn under section 9 and no fresh application is made under Section 3 and every debt due from such debtor in respect of which a statement is not submitted to the Court by the creditor in compliance with the provisions of Section 12, shall be extinguished If all these sections of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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