Law: Punjab Alienation of Land Act (XIII of 1900)

Section: 16, 21

    Punjab Alienation of Land Act (XIII of 1900), Ss. 16 & 21-A Protection of S. 16 in respect of land belonging to member of an agricultural tribe---Decree of civil Court directing sale of specific land for realisation of debt---Objection by judgment debtor that he being an agriculturist his land could not be sold in execution proceeding by virtue of S. 16-Held, could not be raised for first time in execution proceeding-Execution Court in such case cannot go behind decree---Proper course to attack decree itself or to bring it to notice of Deputy Commissioner under S. 21-A for necessary action. Where a decree ordered sale of certain property for the realization of a debt, the objection that the judgment-debtor is an agriculturist and that the property cannot be sold in execution proceedings by virtuey of the Alienation of Land Act, cannot be raised for the first time in execution proceedings. A Court executing a decree cannot go behind that decree in execu tion proceedings. If there is a contravention of section 16, Alienation of Land Act, by the decree, the proper course is to attack the decree itself and not a subsidiary order passed in execution. If the decree to be executed has already determined the liability of the property to sale, the executing Court cannot question the validity of the decree or refuse to carry it out. If the intention of the Legislature were that no decree should be passed at all in any case directing the sale of land belonging to a member of an agricultural tribe, a provision to that effect could easily have been made. But it is significant that the Legislature has made no such provision. It appears therefore that the Legislature did not intend that a decree for sale of land should not be passed if it were not otherwise contrary to law. It seems reasonable in the circumstance to infer that section 16 was meant to apply only to those cases where the liability of the land to be sold is not already determined by the decree itself, and the executing Court has to decide (as in the case of simple money decrees) what property should be sold to satisfy the decree. It seems scarcely likely that the Legislature could have intended…