RANGANATH PARMESHWAR PANDITRAO MALI Vs. EKNATH GAJANAN KULKARNI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The appellants are the plaintiffs who filed a suit seeking injunction against the respondents in the Court of Civil Judge, Junior Division in the district of Ahmednagar. The said suit was registered as Suit No. 200 of 1985. It was alleged that the common ancestor Bhanudas had two sons Panditrao and Gajanan. Plaintiffs are the sons of Panditrao from his marriage with Shevantabai and the defendants are the sons of Gajanan. The further case of the plaintiffs was that there had been a partition between Panditrao and Gajanan and the suit property admeasuring 3.18 hectares in village Kongoni had been allotted to the heirs of Panditrao. Panditrao died in the year 1976 leaving behind his sons the plaintiffs and the widow Shevantabai. Shevantabai died in 1977 and thereafter the plaintiffs are in continuous possession of the suit property. The defendants however managed to get their names entered in the revenue record by way of mutation. Against the said order of mutation the plaintiffs preferred an appeal and the appellate authority had set aside the order of mutation in favour of the defendants. But still the defendants having obstructed the plaintiffs' possession, the plaintiffs filed the suit seeking relief of injunction praying that the defendants be restrained from obstructing the peaceful possession of the plaintiffs. The defendants filed written statement denying the averments made in the plaint and took the stand that the plaintiffs are not the legal heirs of Panditrao, they also took the stand that the property is not ancestral property of the plaintiffs as alleged and the plaintiffs are never in possession of the same. According to defendants they being the sons of brother of Panditrao are the only legal heirs and said Panditrao had died without marrying. On these pleadings the learned trial Judge framed three issues and recorded the following findings:

(3.) With these conclusions, the suit was decreed with the declaration that the suit land belongs to Panditrao, the father of the plaintiffs and plaintiffs are the legal heirs and defendants were restrained from obstructing the peaceful possession of the plaintiffs over the suit land.