ASHRAFALLI CASSAMALLI Vs. MAHOMEDALLI RAJABALLI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a suit for the administration of the estate of one Cassim Ali Jairazbhoy. He died on June 8, 1938, leaving behind him his widow (defendant No.5) and six sons (the plaintiff, defendants Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 ). Defendant No.11 is his grandson by his son, defendant No.6. Defendant No.12 is his mother. Defendants Nos. 1 to 4 are the executors of his will dated October 15, 1934.

(2.) COUNSEL have informed me that the various matters in dispute in suit between the parties have been settled, and the decision of the Court is only sought on the question of the construction of Clause 6 in the will of the deceased.

(3.) SIR Jamshedji Kanga has also relied on a decision of Mr. Justice Macleod. , as he then was, in Mangaldas v. Abdul Razak (1914) 16 Bom. L. R. 224; 'that case decided that the Hindu law of joint family property did not apply to Cutchi Memons, tot at p, 231, Mr.-Justice Macleod has made an observation that in a recent, case he had noticed that Khojas in the" matter of wills were governed by Mahomedan law unless a custom to the contrary had been proved and that. no trace could be found of the proof of any such custom in the cases so far decided. With great respect to the learned Judge, I think that it was too late in the day in 1914 to doubt the proposition that the Khojas were in the matter of wills governed by Hindu law when, as I have pointed out, SIR Lawrence Jenkins more than ten years ago accepted the proposition as so obvious as not to admit of any discussion or argument.