BHOJRAJ Vs. SITA RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are consolidated appeals from two decrees of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad dated March 26, 1930, which reversed the judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge of Mainpuri and dismissed the plaintiffs' suit with costs.

(2.) THE dispute was as to the property of one Tej Raj, a wealthy Brahman landowner, which was situate at Kusyari and elsewhere in the district of Mainpuri. Tej Raj died in 1855 leaving surviving him three widows and a deceased son's widow, to whom Tej Raj's widows gave a portion of the property in lieu of her right to maintenance. THEse four ladies at various dates from 1873 onwards alienated the property in favour of the predecessors in title of the defendants, and by 1924 when Musummat Bakht Kunwar, the youngest widow of Tej Raj and the last survivor of the four ladies, died, all the property in question in the suit was in the possession of the defendants. In 1890 a declaratory suit had been brought by plaintiffs other than the present plaintiffs purporting to claim as reversioners to the property of Tej Raj and seeking to challenge the validity of the alienation of such property. This suit failed owing to the operation of the rules of limitation applicable to such declaratory actions and no question of pedigree was ever debated or decided in that suit. On the death of the last surviving widow, Mussummat Bakht Kunwar, the present suit was filed on November 17, 1924, claiming possession of the properties formerly belonging to Tej Raj and then held by the defendants. THE main issues which arose for decision and were decided by the Subordinate Judge were : (1) Were the plaintiffs entitled to maintain the suit as having or taking title from the next heirs or reversioners to the property of Tej Raj ? (2) Were the transfers to the defendants and their predecessors in title effected for legal necessity and valid ? THEre were other issues which were subsidiary or have now ceased to be of importance. THE only one of these which need be mentioned is an issue as to certain houses and groves in respect of which the Subordinate Judge excepted the houses, though not the groves, from the operation of his decree which was otherwise in accordance with the plaintiffs' claim.

(3.) THE issue as to the plaintiffs' pedigree and right to maintain the suit is one of very considerable complexity and difficulty both by reason of the lapse of time between the death of Tej Raj and the present suit and by reason of the differences of view on the facts and evidence that have emerged in the Courts below. In both Courts very careful and able judgments have been delivered reviewing the evidence in detail and giving reasoned grounds for the conclusions arrived at. But after full consideration of those judgments and assisted by a close examination of the evidence by counsel, their Lordships have arrived at a clear opinion that the view of the Subordinate Judge on this issue is to be preferred to that of the Judges of the High Court. THE reasons which have led their Lordships to this conclusion are as follows :