Provable debts under insolvency law are tested by the petition date, not later adjudication, preserving barred claims.

For provability of debts under the Provincial Insolvency Act, the material date is the date of presentation of the insolvency petition, not the date of adjudication. Section 34(2) was understood to make debts provable if the insolvent is subject to them when adjudged insolvent, but section 28(7) was treated as operating through relation back so that the petition date governs. On that basis, debts admitted by the Official Receiver were not expunged merely because they became time-barred before adjudication. The court preferred the settled administrative and judicial practice, leaving any change to the legislature.

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Issues: Whether, for purposes of provability of debts under the Provincial Insolvency Act, the material date is the date of presentation of the insolvency petition or the date of adjudication, so that debts admitted by the Official Receiver but barred by limitation before adjudication can be expunged.

Analysis: Section 34(2) makes debts provable if the insolvent is subject to them when adjudged insolvent, while Section 28(7) gives effect to relation back of the adjudication order. The Courts below treated the petition date as the criterion date and relied on prior decisions supporting that view. Although the reasoning was not regarded as free from doubt and the statutory scheme was contrasted with English bankruptcy law, the Act was understood to have been administered consistently on the basis that the petition date governs. The Court considered that long-established practice and the need for certainty justified adherence to the existing view, leaving any change to the legislature.

Conclusion: The petition date remained the material date, and the debts could not be expunged on the ground that a suit had become barred by limitation before adjudication. The revision petition was dismissed in favour of the respondents.

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