( 1) Notwithstanding any law or custom for the tlme bemg in force, or any contract, or any decree or order of Court to the contrary, any debt due by an agriculturist may be discharged by repayment of the principal amount of the debt outstanding in ten equal half yearly instalments together with such interest as would be payable under the provisiOns of Sectlon 5. The instalments shall be payable on or before the last day of February and August of each of the five years commencing on the com mencement of this Act.
Explanatwn.-In the case of a decree, the amount decreed shall be deemed to be the principal.
(2) VVhere in respect of a decree for debt passed before the commencement of this Act, a debtor fails to make any one of the payments specified in sub-section ( 1) and Section 5, the decree-holder shall be entitled to execute the decree in respect of the instalment which is in arrear.
(3) In any sUit filed after the commencement of this Act, the Court m decreemg the sUit shall provide for the Immediate payment of such instalment or mstalments as would have be come due under the proviswns of sub-section ( 1) and Section 5 and the balance in further instalments as specified therein.
( 4) VVhere in any suit for recovery of a debt pending at the commencement of this Act, the debtor claims to be an agriculturist, the Court shall, if the debtor is an agriculturist, pass a decree for immediate payment of such instalment or instalments as would have become payable under the pro visions of sub-section (1) and Section 5 and the balance in further instalments as specified therein.
(5) Nothing contained m this Act shall bar the Court from passing a decree or making an order m an application for execution of the decree under such terms and conditions as may be. more _favourable !o the debtor than those provided for in th1s Sect10n and SectiOn 5 either of Its own motion upon a con· sideration of all the circumstances of the case or upon an agree ment between the parties.
( 6) Where m any suit to recover a debt or in any appli cation for the execution of a decree therefor the debt 1s payable by an agriculturist jointly or Jointly and severally with a non-agriculturist, the Court shall pass a decree or make a~ order for the payment of the debt found due from the agriculturist as provided m this section and SectiOn 5 as against the agriculturist and make such provision in the decree or order against the non-agriculturist as the circumstances of the case may warrant.
{ 7) The provisiOns of sub-section { 1) and Section 5 shall, for purposes of execution, be deemed to be a subsequent order of Court withm the meanmg of clause {b) of sub-section {1) of SectiOn 48 of the Code of C1vil Procedure, 1908 ( 5 of 1908) .