CHOTEYLAL Vs. GAJADHAR PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a plaintiffs' appeal arising out of a suit for a declaration or in the alternative for recovery of possession by the ejectment of the defendants-respondents from certain zamindari property and a house.

(2.) ONE Ram Gopal who was arrayed as defendant No. 5 and who is in this appeal arrayed as respondent No. 2 and the plaintiffs-appellants are members of a family whose common ancestor was one Pitambar. Pitambar had three sons, Shib Lal, Ram Lal and Khiyali Ram. Plaintiffs 3 and 4 are great grandsons of Shib Lal. Plaintiff 1 is grandson or Ram Lal and plaintiff 2 is greatgrandson of Ram Lal. Ram Gopal is great-grandson of Khiyali Ram. The plaintiffs and Ram gopal are, therefore, removed by several degrees from each other. Ram Gopal executed a mortgage in 1937 of the property in dispute in favour of one Dwarka Prasad, father of defendant-respondent Gajadhar Prasad. In 1938 Ram Gopal executed a deed of gift of the property in suit in favour of the same Dwarka Prasad. The present suit was instituted by the plaintiffs in the year 1945 for a declaration that the aforesaid deeds of gift and mortgage were invalid because Ram Gopal was a junior member of the joint Hindu family and the property was joint ancestral property and as such he had no right to make a mortgage or gift of the same.

(3.) THE defence was that Ram Gopal was a separated member of the family and the property was his own which he would gift or mortgage as he liked.