SHYAM LAL ALIAS KULDEEP Vs. SANJEEV KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 21.09.2000 of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla in Regular Second Appeal No. 10 of 1998 whereby the High Court allowed the appeal of the respondents and set aside the judgment and decree passed by the learned District Judge, Solan.

(2.) The appellant herein, who was the plaintiff before the Trial Court, filed a suit for declaration to the effect that mutation number 1313 dated 20.2.1988 in favour of defendant Nos. 1 and 2 was illegal, null and void. The plaintiff and defendant Nos. 3 and 4 are the sons and defendant Nos. 5 and 6 are the daughters of late Shri Balak Ram. They were joint owners and in possession of the estate of the deceased-Balak Ram in equal shares. Balak Ram died on 31.10.1987. After his death, his estate came to be mutated in favour of his grandsons, defendant Nos. 1 and 2, on the basis of a Will executed on 4.12.1978. vide mutation number 1313 dated 20.02.1988.

(3.) According to the plaintiff, the estate was inherited by the deceased-Balak Ram from his father Mohar Singh and as such the same was ancestral in his hands. It is further alleged by the plaintiff that the deceased-Balak Ram's Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) consisted of himself, the plaintiff and the defendants. Late Balak Ram was governed by the Hindu Law and Customs in the matter of alienation and succession whereby he could not bequeath the ancestral property. It was further pleaded that no Will was executed by the deceased-Balak Ram during his lifetime. The Will, if any, was forged and fabricated and ultimately the mutation of inheritance sanctioned on 20.2.1988 was illegal, null and void.