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1. This is a defendant's appeal. The facts which have led up to it are to a certain extent not disputed. The plaintiff Mathura Prasad pawned three ornaments in Kartika Sambat 1885. He pawned them through his agent, the defendant No. 2, to one Manni Ram for Rs. 1,000. The loan carried interest at Rs. 0-14-0 per cent, per mensem. Manni Ram in his own turn Sub-pledged the ornaments to the defendant No. 3. Subsequently, two of the three ornaments so Sub-pledged were redeemed and were again Sub-pledged with the defendant No. 4. The plaintiff paid two items of Rs. 800 and Rs. 500 to the original pawnee, Manni Ram.

As a portion of the debt remained unpaid he did not get back the ornaments. Then the Debt Redemption Act came into force and under it the amount of the loan got reduced because the plaintiff was an agriculturist. The debt got reduced to such an extent that the payment already made by the plaintiff satisfied it. The plaintiff, therefore, sued to recover possession of the three ornaments after redemption and contended that he was entitled to do so without the payment of any amount.

He said that he was not bound by the Sub-pledges made to the defendants Nos. 3 and 4 and as the original debt had been satisfied he was entitled to get the ornament No. 1 mentioned in the plaint from the defendant No. 3 and the other two ornaments from the defendant No. 4. The suit was contested by all the defendants but we are not concerned now with the defences put forward by the original pawnee, the agent through whom the pawn was made and the defendant No. 4.

Whatever doubt may be indulged in, in the case of a mere factor, it has been decided in the case of a strict pledge, that if the pledgee transfers the same to his own creditor the latter may hold the pledge until the debt of the original owner is discharged."

If, therefore, Manni Ram Sub-pledged to the appellant the ornaments which the plaintiff had pledged to him, Manni Ram having only a limited interest in them the pledge was valid only to the extent of the interest which Manni Ram himself possessed in the ornament. In other words, Manni Ram could not give to the appellant rights superior to those of his own. The only right he had in the ornaments was to retain them as Security for the satisfaction of the loan which he had himself advanced.