AHMAD ABDUL RAZAAK Vs. JAMALA BINT MEHDI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a civil reference by the District and Sessions Judge of Aden under Section 8 of Regulation VI of 1933 (Aden) in a suit pending before him. That section provides : (1} Where, before or on the hearing by the District Judge of a suit or an appeal in which suit or appeal the decree is not subject to appeal, or where, in the execution of any such decree, any question of law or usage having the force of law arises on which the District Judge entertains reasonable doubt, the District Judge may either of his own motion or on the application of any of the parties draw up a statement of the facts of the case and the point on which doubt is entertained and refer such statement with his own opinion on the point for the decision of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay.

(2.) ACCORDINGLY the learned District Judge has made this reference. The suit which has given rise to this reference was brought by the nephews of one Idriss Abdul Kadir against his widow. Idriss Abdul Kadir was an employee of the Port Trust at Aden and died on January 7, 1933, and there is no question that the parties are his heirs under the Muhammadan law. He was a subscriber to the provident fund of the Aden Port Trust, and on his death there was a sum of Rs. 4,070 and odd standing to his credit in the fund. Under the rules of the fund the subscriber had nominated his widow, the defendant, as a nominee and as the person entitled to receive the whole amount due to him. The plaintiffs claim that although the widow was entitled to recover the amount in the first instance from the fund, the amount was divisible under the Muhammadan law as being part of the estate of the deceased Idriss among his heirs.

(3.) THE rest of the section is not material. Now, although the section refers to a Government or a railway provident fund, Section 8 says that any provident fund established for the benefit of its employees by any local authority shall , be governed by this Act as if such provident fund were a Government provident fund and such local authority were the Government.