SETHANI Vs. BHANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is against the judgment and order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in S.A. No. 642 of 1973.

(2.) The plaintiff-appellant is named Sethani. She is pitted against her paternal uncle Bhana. The bone of contention is a piece of agricultural land measuring little over 23 acres in village Cival, Tehsil and, District Burhanpur in the State of Madhya Pradesh.

(3.) She filed a suit for partition in the Court of Civil Judge, Class I, Burhanpur claiming half share in the aforesaid land representing her father Dalpat's share. The plea of the defendant-respondent was that she had nothing to do with the lands which had been settled on him by a family arrangement. The trial Court dismissed the suit but the lower Appellate Court passed a preliminary decree for partition. The defendant respondent filed a Second Appeal before the High Court where an application for amendment of the written statement was made to assert the plea that though at one time the plaintiff had a right in the land in dispute, she had lost it because her mother Putlibai had transferred the same to him for a sum of Rs. 1,000/- by a Registered Sale Deed dated 1-4-1963. On this premises the defendant respondent claimed that the plaintiff had no title to the suit land. The amendment was allowed. The plaintiff-appellant countered that the facts as pleaded by the defendant were wrong and in any case she was not bound by the said sale deed it having been executed under undue influence. It was further pleaded that Putlibai was a tribal and illiterate woman besides being old and blind and was under the total domination of the defendant-respondent Bhana. Thus, the deed was got executed from her under undue influence. The High Court framed a suitable issue and remitted the case to the trial Court for a finding. The trial Court recorded the finding in favour of the plaintiff-appellant. The High Court received objections against that finding and upset the finding of the trial Court. As a result the appeal of the defendant-appellant was allowed giving rise to the present appeal.