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Issues: (i) Whether the assignment deed dated 12.2.1954 amounted to an acknowledgement of liability under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, so as to extend the period for a suit for redemption; (ii) Whether the mortgage debt stood discharged under Section 9 of the Tamil Nadu Debt Relief Act, 1979; (iii) Whether the plaintiffs were entitled to redemption and ancillary reliefs.
Issue (i): Whether the assignment deed dated 12.2.1954 amounted to an acknowledgement of liability under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, so as to extend the period for a suit for redemption.
Analysis: A mortgagee's statement in a subsequent document can amount to an acknowledgement if it relates to a subsisting mortgage, indicates the legal relationship between the mortgagor and mortgagee, and is made with the intention of admitting that relationship. A mere reference to the mortgage is insufficient, but a recital asserting rights under the original mortgage and entitlement to receive the mortgage amount may show acknowledgement of the subsisting liability and the mortgagor's continuing right of redemption. On the language of the assignment deed, the mortgagee's assertion that the assignee was entitled to receive all amounts under the original mortgage amounted to such acknowledgement.
Conclusion: The assignment deed constituted an acknowledgement under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, and a fresh period of limitation commenced from 12.2.1954.
Issue (ii): Whether the mortgage debt stood discharged under Section 9 of the Tamil Nadu Debt Relief Act, 1979.
Analysis: Once the suit for redemption was held to be within limitation, the mortgage was still subsisting when the Debt Relief Act came into force. Section 9 applies to mortgages executed before 14.7.1978 where the mortgagee is in possession. Where possession has continued for an aggregate period of ten years or more, the debt is deemed to have been wholly discharged from the expiry of that period, or from 14.7.1978 if the ten-year period had already expired. Since the mortgagee and successors had remained in possession for more than ten years, the statutory conditions were satisfied.
Conclusion: The mortgage debt stood wholly discharged under Section 9 of the Tamil Nadu Debt Relief Act, 1979.
Issue (iii): Whether the plaintiffs were entitled to redemption and ancillary reliefs.
Analysis: As the mortgage debt stood discharged, the plaintiffs were entitled to redemption without the necessity of a preliminary decree and accounts of mortgage dealings. A claim for accounts could not be used to obtain mesne profits when such relief had not been specifically claimed. The description of the mortgaged property in the decree also had to conform to the mortgage deed.
Conclusion: The plaintiffs were entitled to redemption, the prayer for rendition of accounts was rejected, and the decree description had to be amended to match the mortgage deed.
Final Conclusion: The High Court's judgment was set aside and the suit was decreed in substance in favour of the mortgagors, with redemption granted, accounts refused, and the decree corrected to correspond to the mortgaged property as described in the mortgage deed.
Ratio Decidendi: A mortgagee's signed recital in a later instrument will extend limitation only if it affirmatively acknowledges the subsisting mortgage relationship, and where the statutory conditions of the special debt-relief law are met, the mortgage debt is deemed discharged by operation of law.
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