RAM SAHAI Vs. RAM SEWAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court from a judgment and decree of this Court dated 16-12-1953.

(2.) The dispute between the parties relates to a claim by the respondent that he is entitled to a one-fourth share in two plots of land in the town of Ferozabad. On an issue being remitted by this Court the value of that one-fourth share was found by the learned Additional Civil Judge of Agra to be Rs. 10,425/- and that figure is not now in dispute. The appellant contends however that the judgment and decree of this Court "involves directly or indirectly some claim or question respecting" the entire property the value of which is considerably in excess of Rs. 20,000. We do not think this contention is sound. In --- 'Bai Shevantibai v. Janardhan Raghunath', AIR 1944 PC 65 (A), the Privy Council held that a question as to the title of the plaintiff to the share which he claimed in the joint property did not become a question respecting the whole of the joint family estate merely because if his title is established it would result in the joint family estate being partitioned. A fortiori a claim to a one-fourth share in certain property will not have that result if the establishment of the plaintiff's claim does not involve partition.

(3.) The suit out of which this application for leave to appeal arises was instituted on 7-7-1949, that is before the commencement of the Constitution, but the decrees of the trial Court and of the lower appellate court as well as the decree, of this Court on second appeal were made after 26-1-1950, and the important question which arises is whether in these circumstances the appellant has a right of appeal to the Supreme Court notwithstanding the fact that the amount or value of the subject matter of the dispute, although above Rs. 10,000, is less than Rs. 20,000.