KHATOON Vs. SRIPAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is defts'. appeal arising out of a suit for a declaration that a perpetual lease was invalid & for possession over the property covered by the lease.

(2.) The facts briefly are as follows: The plff. is a brother of defts-respondent Sripal Singh, Chandrapal Singh & Rampal Singh. His claim was that his brothers Sripal Singh & Chandrapal Singh had executed a perpetual lease of five agricultural plots Nos. 1776, 1777, 1872/1, 1873/1 & 2123, which were included within the under-proprietary holding of the family of the plff. & his brothers & that this perpetual lease executed on 24-7-1931 in favour of Mt. Bibi, wile of Hazrat deft. 4, & on the death of Mt. Bibi inherited by Hazrat, who gifted it to defts-appellants, was wholly void on two grounds, firstly, that the property was ancestral & the family, was a joint Hindu family & the transfer was without any legal necessity secondly, that if the family was not a joint family but that the parties were co-owners as tenants in common, then it was executed by one of the co-owners as such, was not binding on the others & was indeed void in its entirety.

(3.) The defence was that the property was not ancestral & the family was not joint & that the perpetual lease was executed by Sripal Singh, who managed the property on behalf of all the brothers & who was competent to execute the lease & that the lease was binding upon the plff.