KARBALAI BEGUM Vs. MOHAMMAD SAYEED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HOW dishonest cousins, looking after the lands of their brother's widow, situated far away from the place where the widow was living, taking undue advantage of the confidence reposed in them by their widowed sister-in-law and having painted a rosy picture of honestly managing the property and giving her due share, cast covetous eyes on their sister-in-law's share and with a deplorable design, seek to deprive her of her legal share and deny her legal rights is not an uncommon feature of our village life. That this is so is aptly illustrated by the facts of this case where the sister-in-law was driven by the force of circumstances to indulge in a long drawn litigation in order to vindicate her legal rights in wresting her share of the property from the hands of her cousins. This is the unfortunate story of the poor and helpless appellant, Karbalai Begum, who having failed to get justice from the High Court of Allahabad was forced to knock the doors of the highest Court in the country and has, therefore, filed the present appeal in this Court after obtaining special leave.

(2.) IN order to understand the facts of the case, it may be necessary to give a short genealogy of the parties which will be found in the judgment of the District Judge and is extracted below : <IMG>JUDGEMENT_396_4_1980Image1.jpg</IMG>

(3.) THE suit was contested by the defendants mainly on the ground that the defendants were in separate occupation of the land or plots in dispute and the plaintiff had absolutely no concern with them. it was further averred that although at some time before the lands in dispute were joint but during the consolidation proceedings the plots in possession of the plaintiff were occupied by Adhivasi who having acquired the rights of a Sirdar under the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, the plaintiff lost her title by operation of law. THE allegation of the plaintiff that the defendants had committed fraud was stoutly denied.