RAGHBIR SINGH LALA Vs. RAM RATTAN SETH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE sole question presented for decision in this appeal is whether (1) certain shares of the Delhi Cloth and General Mills Company, Limited, and (2), an interest in a timber business carried on by the firm of Sultan Singh & Company were the separate self-acquired property of the late Rai Bahadur Sultan Singh or were the property of the Hindu joint family of which Sultan Singh was a member.

(2.) THE question arose in consequence of a decree for Rs. 24,798-4-6 and costs obtained by the respondents on August 22, 1934, in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Lahore against the appellant, recoverable from the estate of the late Sultan Singh, the appellant's father. THE respondents on November 29, 1934, applied in the Court of the District Judge at Delhi for execution of this decree by the attachment of a kothi or bungalow in Delhi alleged to have been owned by Sultan Singh. THE application was resisted by the appellant on various grounds and appropriate issues were framed.

(3.) THE Subordinate Judge, in pursuance of the remand to him, heard further evidence, and on March 14, 1938, reported that in his opinion the respondents had failed to prove that Sultan Singh had left any separate self-acquired property on his decease in the hands of the appellant. In particular, he held that the respondents had failed to prove that either the shares in the Delhi Cloth and General Mills Company, or the interest in the timber business, which have formed the subject-matter of debate before their Lordships, were separate property of the late Sultan Singh.