Perianna Goundan vs Sellappa Goundan And Ors. on 20 October, 1938
Reliance has been placed on a decision of this Court in Perianna Goundan v. Sellappa Goundan (1938) 2 M.L.J. 1068 : I.L.R. (1938) (1939) Mad. 218, which is a decision under this very Act. The learned Judges there were not concerned with the definition of judgment-debtor, but with the definitions of "debt" and "debtor". There, the purchaser of the equity of redemption was made a party to the suit and a decree was passed against him; and so he was undoubtedly a judgment-debtor; but it was argued in that case that as he was not liable personally, his property only being liable, he was not a debtor. That argument was repelled; and it was held that there was nothing in the Madras Agriculturists' Debt Relief Act which distinguished between a personal obligation to pay a debt and an obligation under which only a man's property is liable.