SMT. ANANDI DEVI Vs. SHYAM KISHORE AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against the judgment and decree passed by the Distt. Judge, Fatehpur dismissing the appeal as well as the cross objection against the judgment and decree passed by the Addl. Civil Judge, Fatehpur, declaring that the Plaintiff's share in the property in suit is one -third and she is entitled to the partition of the same.

(2.) IN order to understand the facts of the case, it is necessary to give a small pedigree of the family of the parties. One Brij Nandan Lal had two sons - -Shyam Kishore, Respondent No. 1 and Raj Kishore. Smt. Anandi, Plaintiff -Appellant, is the widow of Raj Kishore. Smt. Ram Shri was the widow of Brij Nandan Lal who died in the year 1940. Raj Kishore died in the year 1942. Smt. Ram Shri died in the year 1946. There was a series of litigation between Smt -Anandi and Shyam Kishore. Earlier Smt. Anandi alleged that there was a private partition between her and the Respondent by which certain property of Schedule A was given to her and the property given in Schedule B with a flour mills, ornaments and cash were given to the Defendant. She filed a suit on the basis of this private partition which was fought upto the High Court. This Court held that there was never any family settlement between the parties nor the family property was ever partitioned between them. After the decision of the appeal arising out of the above suit by the High Court, the Plaintiff filed the present suit alleging that she had one -half share in the entire property detailed at the foot of the plaint and claimed partition of the same.

(3.) THE learned Counsel for the Appellant contended that Smt. Anandi was entitled to a share Under Section 3(2) of the Hindu Women's Right to Property Act, 1937 and she was entitled to claim partition of her share in the property in the same manner in which her husband would have done had he been alive on the date on which this partition was claimed. The contention of the learned Counsel for the Respondent was that according to Section 3(2) of the Act aforesaid, Smt. Ramsri got one -third share in the property being the widowed mother and as such the share of Smt. Ramsri would devolve on the Respondent. The question, therefore, arises as to what right a widow gets under the Hindu Women's Right to Property Act, 1937. Earlier a Hindu widow had a right of maintenance. She could not claim a partition of the family property but she was entitled to a share in the property in lieu of maintenance. The right she got under the old Hindu Law was a limited right which was to devolve on her death on the heirs of her husband.