RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 167 



take place under the Act. The history and merits of disputed or 

 doubtful cases will be enquired into, and an account will be taken in 

 a certain way if the Court considers the agreement not fair and 

 equitable. Whether these sections express intelligibly, or will secure 

 effectively, the action needed, seems doubtful ; but they can perhaps 

 be improved in Select Committee. Regarding this safeguard and ] 

 those of registration and accounts already explained, I should perhaps 

 observe that any ingenious person can imagine methods by which 

 debtor and creditor in collusion may evade them. But the same may 

 be said of many other most beneficial enactments. We can only help 

 those who will help themselves ; and I believe a large proportion of 

 our Deccan peasantry will take heart of grace to do so. 



A second important question affecting the determination of the 

 amount of the debtor's liability is that of the period of limitation. 

 The old law of Bombay (Regulation 5 of 1827, Actions 3 and 4) fixed 

 twelve years in the case of debts supported on d, and six years 



in the case debts not so supported, as tW^pSiflfcb within which civil 

 suits for recovery must be brought respective' . By Act 14 of 

 1859 these periods were reduced to six and three years respectively, 

 with the further restriction that a debt supported by written con- 

 tract was to come under the three years' period, unless it was 

 registered. This is the present law, Acts 9 of 1871, and 15 of 1877 

 having made no material change. There is an almost universal 

 consensus of opinion that, as the Commission say, ( the reduction 

 in the periods of limitation has been the cause of considerable 

 hardship to the debtor.' Under the old law, the debtor was 

 rarely sued or called upon to renew the bond till near the expiration 

 of the twelve years, and then he was, at most, sued under the 

 provision of dam-ditpat for twice the principal sum lent. But under 

 the law since 1859, the creditor is forced within every three years 

 either to sue the debtor, or to obtain from him a fresh bond for 

 principal and any accumulated interest. In practice, he does so nearly 

 every two years, in order to make sure of not missing the period 

 through any accident or default. To show the difference between 

 the two laws : Rupees 100 at 9 per cent, become Rs. 208 in 12 years; 

 but if the bond be renewed triennially, the amount is raised to 

 Rs. 260. At the higher rates which are but too common the effect 

 is more startling. Rupees 100 at 25 per cent, become Rs. 400 in 

 twelve years ; but renewals every two years produce a total of 



