JANG BAHADUR SINGH Vs. RAM NIHORE SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal by defendant No. 1 arises in the following circumstances.

(2.) JANG Bahadur Singh, defendant No. 1 filed a suit for partition of the plots in question against Ram Nihore Singh, Santu Singh and Gram Sabha claiming that he had half share in the said property. Ram Nihore Singh was described in that suit as a major. The suit was decreed ex parte on 19-3-64. Thereafter Jang Bahadur Singh filed an application on 16-5-64 for preparation of a final decree. This decree was also prepared ex parte. Thereafter Santu Singh filed an application under Order IX, R. 13, C.P.C. on 17-8-74 for setting aside these ex parte preliminary and final decrees. Ram Nihore Singh also filed an application on 15-9-74 for setting aside that decree alleging that he was a minor and that service of summons had not been effected on him. It appears that those applications were decided on the basis of a compromise and ex parte decrees were maintained. Ram Nihore Singh then filed the suit which has given rise to this appeal with the allegations that when the aforesaid partition suit was instituted and the decrees both preliminary and final were passed and the applications under Order IX, Rule 13, C.P.C. were disposed of he was a minor and that the said decrees were obtained fraudulently by Jang Bahadur Singh by describing him as major though he was a minor.

(3.) THE trial court held that the civil court had jurisdiction to try the suit. It also held that Ram Nihore Singh was a minor when the partition suit was instituted and the preliminary and final decrees were passed. It, therefore, decreed the suit and cancelled the decree passed in the said partition suit.