U.N. BHARDWAJ Vs. Y.N. BHARDWAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order will dispose of some of the pending applications pertaining to the proportion of sharing the proceeds from the Bari falling to members of the branch of the family to which the parties belong in respect of the various festivals and events that occur from time to time at the Mandir Shri Kalka Ji (hereafter "the temple") in New Delhi.

(2.) The brief facts necessary for the purpose of this order are that the plaintiff and the first two defendants are brothers being the sons of Late Shri R.N. Bhardwaj and the third, fourth and fifth defendants - in both the suits- are their sisters; the sixth defendant is their mother, (being the legal heirs of Late Shri R.N. Bhardwaj). The other defendants are the descendents of Late Shri R.N. Bhardwaj's brothers, i.e. Prayag Dutt and Hansraj. In both the suits, decree for partition has been claimed by the common plaintiff, i.e. U.N. Bhardwaj. This claim is supported by his brother the first defendant Shri Y.N. Bhardwaj. The narrow controversy, which this order proposes to decide, is with respect to the shares of the female heirs of Late Bhardwaj, i.e. his daughters Ms. Shashibala, Ms. Manju Mudgal and Ms. Arun Sharma and the share of his widow Smt. Chandrakanta, in the "bari" (i.e. turn) rights enjoyed by the parties' family, in the temple.

(3.) In CS (OS) 641/2005, division of five immovable properties described in the schedule and movable propertiess compromising of gold jewellery and cash, is sought. In CS (OS) 642/2005, on the other hand, partition of properties held jointly by Late Shri R.N. Bhardwaj with his brothers is claimed. Shri R.N. Bhardwaj died on 11.9.1991. The subject matter of this suit is a plot of land being Khasra No.1142 at Mehrauli. It is averred that a partition deed was executed as between the father of Shri Hansraj, i.e. Shri Jagan Nath and Shri Hansraj; Shri Prayag Dutt, son of Shri Krishan, brother of Shri Jagan Nath were also parties. Although the suit averments and the corresponding pleadings in the written statement deal with various other factual disputes concerning the acquisition of the property and as to the existence of partition deed, those questions are not relevant for the present purposes except to record that during the interregnum period after the institution of both the suits whenever the occasion arose, this Court has consistently made a series of orders recording whereby during the occurrence of Baris, the highest bidder (from amongst the parties) was conferred the right to collect all the offerings and of that 50% of the bid amount was to be given to defendant nos. 7-13 in Suit No. 642/2005; they are also parties in Suit No. 641/2005. The Court had been recording that the other parties, i.e. the brothers (sons of R.N. Bhardwaj) would be entitled to receive 1/7th share of such 50% share each and that the female heirs of Late R.N. Bhardwaj, i.e. the third to sixth defendants, (the daughters and widow) were entitled to receive ' One Lakh each, as part of an interim arrangement. This arrangement was first recorded by the Division Bench's order dated 31.03.2006.