Estate duty garnishee attachment bars recovery of attached rent, while the unattached balance remains recoverable.

Estate Duty Act recovery provisions can attach rent payable by a tenant when a valid garnishee notice is served, and the statutory first charge on immovable property passing on death is not displaced by the proviso applicable only to movable property. Where a second garnishee notice under the estate duty machinery was issued before suit, recovery of the attached rent could not be maintained against the landlord or purchaser for the amount covered by that attachment. The balance not covered by the proven payment to the authority remained recoverable.

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Issues: Whether rent payable by the tenant could be recovered by the landlord when the Estate Duty authority had issued garnishee orders attaching the rents under the Estate Duty Act, and whether the suit was maintainable in respect of the amount covered by the later demand notice.

Analysis: Section 74(1) of the Estate Duty Act creates a first charge on immovable property passing on death, and a private transfer of such property is void against claims for estate duty. Section 73(5) incorporates the recovery machinery of section 46(5A) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, so that notice served under the estate duty recovery provisions binds the debtor. The proviso to section 74(2) was confined to movable property and did not protect the plaintiff as a purchaser of immovable property. Once the second garnishee notice under section 73 was served before the suit, the plaintiff could not maintain the action to recover the sum covered by that attachment. At the same time, the balance not covered by the proven payment to the authority remained recoverable.

Conclusion: The suit was not maintainable to the extent of the amount covered by the subsisting estate duty attachment, but the plaintiff was entitled to a decree only for the balance.

Ratio Decidendi: A valid garnishee notice issued under the estate duty recovery provisions bars recovery of the attached rent by the landlord, and the charge under section 74(1) of the Estate Duty Act is not defeated by the proviso applicable only to movable property under section 74(2).

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