Order XXI CPC Rules 58, 59, 64, 65 and 66: Claims, Objections and Sale

Rule 58: Adjudication of claims to, or objections to attachment of, property

(1) Where any claim is preferred to, or any objection is made to the attachment of, any property attached in execution of a decree on the ground that such property is not liable to such attachment, the Court shall proceed to adjudicate upon the claim or objection in accordance with the provisions herein contained:

Provided that no such claim or objection shall be entertained:

1. where, before the claim is preferred or objection is made, the property attached has already been sold; or
2. where the Court considers that the claim or objection was designedly or unnecessarily delayed.

(2) All questions, including questions relating to right, title or interest in the property attached, arising between the parties to a proceeding or their representatives under this rule and relevant to the adjudication of the claim or objection, shall be determined by the Court dealing with the claim or objection and not by a separate suit.

(3) Upon the determination of the questions referred to in sub-rule (2), the Court shall, in accordance with such determination:

1. allow the claim or objection and release the property from attachment either wholly or to such extent as it thinks fit; or
2. disallow the claim or objection; or
3. continue the attachment subject to any mortgage, charge or other interest in favour of any person; or
4. pass such order as in the circumstances of the case it deems fit.

(4) Where any claim or objection has been adjudicated upon under this rule, the order made thereon shall have the same force and be subject to the same conditions as to appeal or otherwise as if it were a decree.

(5) Where a claim or an objection is preferred and the Court, under the proviso to sub-rule (1), refuses to entertain it, the party against whom such order is made may institute a suit to establish the right which he claims to the property in dispute; but, subject to the result of such suit, if any, an order so refusing to entertain the claim or objection shall be conclusive.

Rule 59: Stay of sale

Where before the claim was preferred or the objection was made, the property attached had already been advertised for sale, the Court may:

1. if the property is movable, make an order postponing the sale pending the adjudication of the claim or objection; or
2. if the property is immovable, make an order that, pending the adjudication of the claim or objection, the property shall not be sold, or that pending such adjudication, the property may be sold but the sale shall not be confirmed;

and any such order may be made subject to such terms and conditions as to security or otherwise as the Court thinks fit.

Rules 60 to 63: Omitted

Rules 60 to 63 of Order XXI stand omitted from the Central Code. The sequence therefore proceeds from Rule 59 to Rule 64.

Rule 64: Power to order property attached to be sold and proceeds to be paid to person entitled

Any Court executing a decree may order that any property attached by it and liable to sale, or such portion thereof as may seem necessary to satisfy the decree, shall be sold, and that the proceeds of such sale, or a sufficient portion thereof, shall be paid to the party entitled under the decree to receive the same.

Rule 65: Sales by whom conducted and how made

Save as otherwise prescribed, every sale in execution of a decree shall be conducted by an officer of the Court or by such other person as the Court may appoint in this behalf, and shall be made by public auction in manner prescribed.

Rule 66: Proclamation of sales by public auction

(1) Where any property is ordered to be sold by public auction in execution of a decree, the Court shall cause a proclamation of the intended sale to be made in the language of such Court.

(2) Such proclamation shall be drawn up after notice to the decree-holder and the judgment-debtor and shall state the time and place of sale, and specify as fairly and accurately as possible:

1. the property to be sold or, where a part of the property would be sufficient to satisfy the decree, such part;
2. the revenue assessed upon the estate, where the property to be sold is an interest in an estate or in part of an estate paying revenue to the Government;
3. any encumbrance to which the property is liable;
4. the amount for the recovery of which the sale is ordered; and
5. every other thing which the Court considers material for a purchaser to know in order to judge of the nature and value of the property.

Provided that where notice of the date for settling the terms of the proclamation has been given to the judgment-debtor by means of an order under rule 54, it shall not be necessary to give notice under this rule to the judgment-debtor unless the Court otherwise directs.

Provided further that nothing in this rule shall be construed as requiring the Court to enter in the proclamation of sale its own estimate of the value of the property, but the proclamation shall include the estimate, if any, given by either or both of the parties.

(3) Every application for an order for sale under this rule shall be accompanied by a statement signed and verified in the manner prescribed for the signing and verification of pleadings and containing, so far as they are known to or can be ascertained by the person making the verification, the matters required by sub-rule (2) to be specified in the proclamation.

(4) For the purpose of ascertaining the matters to be specified in the proclamation, the Court may summon any person whom it thinks necessary to summon and may examine him in respect of any such matters and require him to produce any document in his possession or power relating thereto.