courts must, however, be judged in the context of our own law and legal procedure and the practical realities of litigation in our country. When a foreigner has to receive a sum of money which should justly be payable to him in a foreign currency and, because of the default of the paying party, seeks to recover its payment through the court, the first question which arises is whether a court in India would have jurisdiction to pass a decree for a sum expressed in a foreign currency. Though on principle there is no reason why a court should not be able to do so, no court can pass a decree directing a defendant to do an impossible or an illegal act and in view of the provisions of our Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, and the restrictions contained therein on making payments in a foreign currency, if a decree were to be passed Simpliciter for a sum expressed in a foreign currency, it would be to direct the defendant to do an act which would be in violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973. Such a decree can, therefore, only be passed by making the payment in foreign currency subject to the permission of the foreign exchange authorities being granted. If however, the authorities do not grant permission for payment of the judgment debt in foreign currency, it would not be possible for the defendant to make such payment, resulting in the decree becoming infructuous and the plaintiff getting nothing under it. The view of Lawton L.J. in the Schorsch Meier case that the plaintiff should be given judgment in the form in which he asked for it and must be left to extricate himself from the intricacies of the law relating to execution and exchange control does not commend itself to us for it does not appear to us to be conducive to the ends of justice. The court must, therefore, provide for the eventuality of the foreign exchange authorities not granting the requisite permission or even if such permission is given, the defendant not paying the decretal debt, or not wanting to discharge the decree by making payment in foreign currency or in Indian rupees. This can only be done by the decree providing in the alternative for payment of a sum of money in Indian rupees, which will be equivalent to the sum decreed in foreign currency. It is but just that a man, who is in law entitled to receive a sum of money in a foreign currency, should either receive it in such currency or should receive its equivalent in Indian rupees. It is here that the question of the date which the court should select for converting foreign currency into Indian rupees arises. The court must select a date
