M.N. Nagendran Chettiar vs Lakshmi Ammal on 18 January, 1933
2. The appellant relies on Venkatagiri v. Sadagopachariar (1912) 14 IC 449, Muhammad Elsman Rowthen v. Abdulla (1901) 24 Mad 171, Chinnaswami Padayachi v. Darmalinga Padayachi AIR 1932 Mad 566 and Ram Narain Sahoo v. Bandi Pershad (1904) 31 Cal 737, and also on a recent Full Bench case in Nagendra Chettiar v. Lakshmi Ammal AIR 1933 Mad 583, but I consider that they are not relevant to this case. All these cases are clearly distinguishable from the present for two reasons. In all these cases one of the mortgagees was not made a party in at least one of the suits, and secondly the purchase relied on for possession was one in Court auction. Here we have purely a private sale by the mortgagor to the mortgagee and no authority whatever has been quoted to show that the possession which the mortgagee obtained stands on a different footing from the possession of the mortgagor. The appellant is really driven to rely entirely on para. 2 of the decree in the plaintiff's suit "subject to defendant 3's prior lien" and to argue that the defendant is entitled on this to remain in possession till his mortgage is redeemed. 19 Halsbury, p. 2. para. 1, is relied on for the general meaning of the word "lien" where it is said that lien in its primary sense is a right in one man to retain that which is in his possession belonging to another until certain demands of the person in possession are satisfied. But "lien" may be either possessory or non-possessory: vide Fisher on Mortgages, p. 392. See also 19 Halsbury, p. 4, para. 4.