RAM SINGH Vs. BUDH SEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a plaintiffs second appeal arising out of a suit filed for partition of one property in suit. The property in suit is a house. The plaintiff -appellant is the grandson of one Rahim Singh. The relevant pedigree is given below :

(2.) PLAINTIFF -appellants grandfather Rahim Singh was a Mohammedan. He had two sons. Angan Lal, and Budh Sen. There was a partition between Angan Lal and Budh Sen and the house in dispute came to the share of Budh Sen. When partition took place Angan Lal and Budh Sen were also Mohammedan. Thereafter Budh Sen and his sons were converted as Hindus and as the case of the plaintiff -appellant was that being the grandson of Rahim Singh and son of Budh Sen he acquired right in the ancestral property and as such he is entitled to 1/5th share in the property by virtue of the fact that he is a coparcener in the property. The suit was contested by Budh Sen (who has now died and his heirs have been brought on the record) on the ground that he is not a Hindu and that Hindu Law was not applicable and that he is Mohammedan and as such, his property is not divisible during his lifetime and the contesting respondent alone is the owner of the house in suit.

(3.) SHRI Vinod Swarup, learned Counsel for the appellant has urged that in view of the finding recorded by the lower Appellate Court that Budh Sen and his sons had been converted as Hindus, the principles of Hindu Law would apply and since the property in the hands of Budh Sen was from his grandfather, he was entitled to 1/5th share in the property even during the lifetime of Budh Sen.