SHAMRAO Vs. SUNIL KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This regular first appeal has been preferred by defendant No.2 in O.S.No.45/2008 being aggrieved by judgment and decree dated 30.07.2010 passed by the Civil Judge (Sr.Dn.), Chincholi.

(2.) For the sake of convenience, parties herein shall be referred to, in terms of their status before the trial court.

(3.) The respondent-plaintiffs filed a suit seeking partition and separate possession of their 1/5th share in the joint and ancestral suit properties and for a declaration that Will dated 29.11.1996 allegedly executed by Smt.Ratnamma in favour of defendants, is void and not binding on the plaintiffs. The suit schedule properties are described in Paragraph No.2 of the plaint. They are agricultural lands and residential houses situated in Nidagunda village, Chincholi taluk, Gulbarga district. According to the plaintiffs, they and defendant Nos.1 to 3 constitute a Hindu joint family governed by Mitakshara Hindu School of law. That Basappa son of Rudrappa Nirni was the common ancestor of the plaintiffs and defendant Nos.1 to 3. He died long ago leaving behind his five sons namely, Sangappa, Vishwanath, Kashinath, Subhashchandra i.e., defendant No.1 and Shamrao i.e., defendant No.2. Three elder sons of Basappa have died i.e. Sangappa died in the year 1967, leaving behind his two sons, defendant No.3 and Ravi Kumar, who also died leaving behind his wife i.e., defendant No.4 and his children i.e., defendant Nos.5 to 7; Vishwanath died in the year 1983, leaving behind his four sons and one daughter i.e., plaintiff Nos.1 to 4 and one elder son by name Anilkumar, who died issueless; Kashinath died in the year 2002, leaving behind his wife, Puthalabai i.e., defendant No.8 and his daughters namely defendant Nos.9 to 12 and 15 and his sons defendant Nos.13 and 14. For better understanding of the relationship between the parties, genealogy is produced as under: