(1.) C.M. Appl. Nos. 29351/2018 and 29353/2018 (for exemptions)
(2.) This Regular First Appeal under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) is filed by the defendant in the suit impugning the Judgment of the Trial Court dated 18.4.2018 by which the trial court has decreed the suit for partition filed by the sister against the appellant/defendant/brother. Partition has been granted giving each of the parties 50% ownership interest in the property bearing no. 219, Block D-71, Foota Road, Prem Nagar II, Opposite Krishna Public School, Kirari, Suleman Nagar, Nangloi, Delhi.
(3.) I need not narrate the facts in detail because it is an undisputed position that the suit property was owned by the father of the parties Sh. Rama Shanker. It is also not disputed that the father Sh. Rama Shanker died intestate on 11.1998. The mother of the parties and the wife of Sh. Rama Shanker also has died intestate and consequently the appellant/defendant and the respondent/plaintiff being the Class-I legal heirs under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, would each be half owner of the property inherited from their father Sh.Rama Shanker. Appellant/defendant however pleaded that between the parties there was an oral partition in the year 2002-0 Trial court has on this defence held that self-serving averments/depositions of oral partition cannot be believed, and with which I completely agree because valuable immovable property cannot be held by Courts to have been lost to a party simply because there is a case set up of an oral partition and supported only by oral averments/depositions.