PREMA Vs. RADHA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant is the plaintiff in O.S.No.320 of 2013 on the file of the Court of Munsiff, Kasaragod. Challenge in this appeal is against the preliminary decree passed in a suit for partition. Defendants are the contesting respondents. Parties are siblings. The property sought to be partitioned belonged to the father of the parties. He died intestate. It is an admitted case that the appellant and respondents inherited the estate left behind by their deceased father. Parties are Hindus governed by Hindu Succession Act. There is no dispute regarding the share to which the parties are entitled. According to the appellant, the property was improved by their father during his life time. He constructed a cattle shed, bore-well etc. adjacent to the residential building and planted valuable trees.

(2.) The 1st respondent contended that she improved the building in the plaint A schedule property by utilizing her own income and with the consent of other co-owners. She contended that she worked as Peon in Government U.P.School, Badiadka, since 1988. Prior to that, she was working in a private school. It is her case that she renovated the thatched house into a tiled one. She had electrified the house expending money. She constructed a cattle shed and a latrine using her own funds.

(3.) The only question that arise for consideration is whether the 1st respondent was entitled to claim reservation for the improvements made to the house.