PARSHANTI Vs. DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CONSOLIDATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Special leave granted.

(2.) The only question which arises for consideration is whether a Hindu widow who after the death of her husband re-marries another person can lay a claim to the property of her son through the first marriage, if that property happens to be agricultural land. The learned counsel for the appellant placed reliance on a decision of a three-Judge Bench in Smt. Kasturi Devi v. Deputy Director of Consolidation (1977) 2 SCR 25 . This Court applying the general law under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and on principles governing Hindu Law answered the question in the affirmative stating that in such a situation she is not claiming as the widow of her first husband but is laying a claim as the mother of the pre-deceased son. Their Lordships did not apply the provisions of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 in the facts of that case or their Lordship's attention was not drawn to the Special law, Section 171(b) whereof, in terms, excludes a widowed mother, who has re-married. The plain language of this provision in the Special law, therefore, clearly excludes the widowed mother, who has remarried, from claiming a share by inheritance from the property of her son born through the first husband. That being so, in the facts of this case, the decision in Kasturi Devi's case (supra) does not apply. In that case, this Court was not applying the provisions of Section 171(b) of the U.P. law. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the authorities below were right in holding that in view of this Special provision her claim was not justified.

(3.) We, therefore, dismiss this appeal but make no order as to costs.