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1 - 5 of 5 (0.18 seconds)Public Debt Act, 1944
Section 50 in The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 [Entire Act]
The Secretary Of State vs The Bank Of India Limited. on 2 March, 1938
(8) The next question that I have to consider is whether the plaintiff is entitled to recover the vaiue of the promissory note, which belonged to him, from the defendants or any of them. Now, what is urged on behalf of the defendants in this connection is that the remedy of the plaintiff, if any, is against the deserve Bank of India and not against any of the defendants. The contention put forward on behalf of the defendants in this connection is that if the original promissory note belonging o the plaintiff bore a forged endorsement, it could not have been validly converted by any subsequent endorsee into a renewed pro-note, and if the Reserve Bank of India allowed an endorsee to surrender the old note and issued a tresh promissory note after cancelling the original promissory note, the cancellation docs not affect the rights of the plaintiff and he could still compel the Reserve Bank of India to pay the- price of the promissory note. Now, there is no doubt that under the Indian Securities Act, 1920, which applied to Government secu-itics until it was repealed by the. Public Debt Act, 1944, S. 16 (2) in terms provided that no renewal or conversion shall affect the rights as against the Government of any other person to the security renewed or converted and S. 18 (c) provided that Government shall be discharged from all liabilities in respect of renewal or conversion after the lapse of six years from the date of such issue. Therefore, it is quite obvious that under the Indian Securities Act, if a Government promissory note which had a forged endorsement on it was converted or renewed by Government, the true owner of the old promissory note would have had a right of action against Government which was in terms conferred upon him by S. 16 (2). Such rights appear to have been enforced against Government in the past and Government in their turn have successfully sued the party who obtained the renewal or conversion. See the case reported in -- 'Secretary of State v. Bank of India, Ltd.', AIR 1037 Bom 145 (B). But, it appears to me that the position under the Public Debt Act has substantially been altered. There is in this Act no Section corresponding to S. 1C (2), Indian Securities Act, 1920. On the other hand there is S. 19 which is in these terms:
Section 18 in Public Debt Act, 1944 [Entire Act]
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