B. Dayal, J.:— This is an Ex. Second Appeal by the decree-holder. He obtained a decree from the court of Small Causes in 1951 and got it transferred to the Munsif's court in the year 1959 and asked for attachment and sale of immoveable property. Both the courts below relied upon Sec. 42, C.P.C as amended by the U.P Laws (Reforms and Amendment) Act No. XXIV of 1954 holding that a transferee court, although a court of Munsif, had the same powers which the transferer court had, namely, the court of Small Causes and consequently could not execute the decree against immoveable property. So far as this order interpreted the amended Sec. 42, C.P.C there is no dispute. The contention on behalf of the decree-holder, however, is that he having obtained the decree before the amendment of Sec. 42, C.P.C a right vested in him to execute his decree by the modes that were available before the amendment and Sec. 42, C.P.C, as amended, is not retrospective and has no application to the decrees passed before the amendment. The learned counsel has relied upon Sec. 3 of the U.P Laws (Reforms and Amendment) Act No. XXIV of 1954, the relevant part of which is as follows, “Any amendment made by this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect or consequence of any right already acquired prior to the commencement of this Act.” The contention of the learned counsel is that the decree-holder having obtained the decree before the amendment of Sec. 42, C.P.C, he acquired the right to execute his decree by sale of immoveable property in a regular court other than the court of a small Causes under the unamended Sec. 42 of the C.P.C He also contends that the provisions of Sec. 51 which provides for the modes of execution by attachment and sale of any property, as also Order 21, Rule 82, C.P.C namely the right to get immoveable property sold in execution of a decree by any court other than a court of Small Causes, have not still been taken away and he is entitled to exercise those rights.
2. After carefully considering the contentions of the learned counsel, I am of the opinion that there is no force in these arguments. Sec. 3 of the U.P Civil Laws (Reforms and Amendment) Act saves the right already acquired. I am unable to hold that as soon as a decree-holder obtains a decree, he acquires a right in all the modes of execution prescribed at that time by the C.P.C He merely has a right to execute his decree and as such execution can only proceed according to the procedure prescribed for execution at the time when the execution is taken out and it cannot, therefore, be said that at the time of obtaining the decree, the decree-holder acquires a right to get immoveable property sold by having his decree transferred to a court other than a court of Small Causes.
3. Sec. 51, C.P.C merely prescribes modes of execution and it does not say that every decree can be executed in the manner prescribed therein. Even before the amendment of Sec. 42, C.P.C a Small Cause Court decree could not be executed by sale of immoveable property in those courts. Sec. 51 of the C.P.C opens with the words “Subject to such condition and limitation as may be prescribed.” The modes prescribed by Sec. 51, C.P.C are, therefore, always subject to other provisions of the Code and Sec. 42 is one of such provisions.
4. Under the amended Sec. 42, C.P.C the court executing a decree sent to it has the same powers to execute such decree as the court which passed it. Therefore, when the Small Cause Court decree is transferred to the court of the Munsif, he also has the same powers for the purposes of executing the decree which a Small Cause Court has. After this amendment, Rule 82 of the C.P.C also has to be read in that light. When this Rule says, “Sale of immoveable property in execution of decrees may be ordered by any court other than a Small Cause Court” must mean that a court of Munsif when executing a decree transferred to it from the court of Small Causes is also a court of Small Causes for purposes of execution. I am, therefore, unable to hold that by virtue of this rule, the Munsif's court can exercise jurisdiction for selling immoveable property in execution of a decree transferred from a court of Small Causes.
5. In this case, the decree was transferred to the court of the Munsif for execution in 1959 after powers of the Munsiif had already been altered by the amendment of Sec. 42, C.P.C as mentioned above. Thus at the time when the Munsif's court received the decree, it had no power to attach immoveable property in execution of the decree.
6. I, therefore, see no force in this appeal. It is accordingly dismissed. As nobody appears for the respondent, there will be no order as to costs in this appeal.
Appeal dismissed.