Section 53 empowers the mortgagee of the property of a bankrupt or arranging debtor, with the leave of the court, to bid and purchase at its sale. It is a re-enactment of present law. One of the options open to a secured creditor, a term which includes a mortgagee, is to stay outside the bankruptcy altogether. However, if a mortgagee decides to dispose of his security in the bankruptcy matter, the question of whether he should be allowed to bid and purchase at the sale of the property is, in the committee's view, a matter for the court to decide. In the circumstances they recommended that section 316 of 1857 Act should be reenacted. That is what is done in section 53.
SECTION 53.
Question proposed: "That section 53 stand part of the Bill."
Question put and agreed to.