174 RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



taken almost entirely from the English Bankruptcy Act of 1 

 and on circulation to the Local Governments was generally held to be 

 too complicated and unsuited to the circumstances of the Indian 

 mofassal. In 1872 MR. (now the HOX'BLE JUSTICE) WEST, Judge of 

 the Sadar Court in Sinclh, proposed a Bill with the essential features 

 of the original rules of that Province; but the matter was not 

 proceeded with. The measure generally is also advocated in his 

 well-known pamphlet, 'The Land and the Law.' In 1872, also, the 

 Punjab made a material step in advance in the Laws Act then 

 passed. 



Upon the acknowledged harshness of the Indian law of Insolvency 

 as it stood up to 1877, I need not enlarge. The new Code of that 

 year, together with the amending Bill, which will, I hope, be passed 

 at our next sitting, have so far relaxed it, that a debtor arrested 

 or imprisoned, or whose property has been attached, may, by applica- 

 tion, obtain a general inquiry into his affairs, a declaration of 

 insolvency, and a release, if in jail (with immunity from subsequent 

 arrest for the scheduled debts) on Innd. fide surrender of all his 

 property. A judgment-creditor also may apply for such declara- 

 tion. A final discharge may also be granted by the Court at its 

 discretion where the debts do not exceed Rs. 200, and is in any case 

 acquired on payment of one-third of the scheduled debts, if the 

 assets do not produce more, or after the lapse of twelve years. The 

 law is still, however, most defective. Application may not be 

 made by a debtor until process has issued against him ; arrest is 

 retained, and imprisonment, though for a shorter period ; all property, 

 except the movables exempt from sale in execution, must be 

 surrendered ; the debtor may be summarily imprisoned for a year, 

 ' at the instance of any creditor,' for concealment or bad faith, while 

 no such penalty awaits the creditor ; and, in some cases the debtor's 

 future earnings will be unreasonably burdened, while in others the 

 creditor will not get what might fairly be recovered for him. Finally, 

 the wdiole becomes a farce through the restriction that the Court may 

 not grant a declaration unless it ' is satisfied' that the debtor ' has 

 not, knowing himself to be unable to pay his debts in full, recklessly 

 contracted debts,' as if persons able to pay in full were the usual 

 customers of the money-lender. 



The fact is that insolvency-law for the Indian mofassal made an 

 altogether false start. In England fraud by the debtor is the chief 



