10A. [ Payment in instalments of scaled down debts. [Inserted by section 4(1) of the Tamil Nadu Pawnbrokers and Debt Relief Laws (Amendment Act 1980 (Tamil Nadu Act 35 of 1980).]
(1)Notwithstanding any law, custom, contract, or decree of Court to the contrary, a debtor shall be entitled to pay within six months from the date of publication of the Tamil Nadu Pawnbrokers and Debt Relief Laws (Amendment) Act, 1980 (Tamil Nadu Act 35 of 1980), in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, (hereafter in this section referred to as the said date), one-third of the amount of the debt as scaled down in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the balance of the debt in two equal half-yearly instalments on or before the last day of the twelfth month and eighteenth month immediately following the said date respectively with the interest due on such instalment up to that date.(2)Where before the said date, a Court has passed a decree for the repayment of the debt as scaled down in accordance with the provisions of this Act, it shall, on application of the judgement-debtor within two months from the said date, apply the provisions of sub-section (1) to such decree and amend the decree accordingly.(3)In any suit instituted after the said date, the Court in decreeing the suit shall provide for the payment of such instalment or instalments as would have become payable under the provisions of sub-section (1) and the balance in further instalments as specified therein.(4)In any suit pending on the said date for the recovery of the amount of the debt as scaled down in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Court shall pass a decree for the payment of such instalment or instalments as could have become payable under the provisions of sub-section (1) and the balance in further instalment as specified therein.(5)Nothing contained in this section shall bar the Court from passing a decree or making an order in an application for execution of the decree under such term and conditions as may be more favourable to the debtor than those provided for in this section either of its own motion or upon a consideration of all the circumstances of the case or upon an agreement between the parties.(6)Where before the said date any debtor has paid to the creditor towards the repayment of the debt as scaled down under this Act, any amount in excess of the amount of instalment as would have become due under the provisions of sub-section (1),-(i)the debtor shall be entitled to adjust the excess amount so paid to one or more future instalments, and(ii)nothing contained in this sub-section shall be deemed to require the creditor to refund any sum which has been paid to him.(7)Nothing contained in this section shall apply to any debt secured by any mortgage of the description referred to in sub-section (1) of section 9.]
