GOPAL DIMAJI BORADE Vs. DIMAJI PIRAJI BORADE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RELATIONS and families are found to have been wrecked on the rocks of either excessive property or abysmal poverty. In the present case property has become the root cause for the dissensions to such an extent that the plaintiff -son and his two brothers (defendant Nos. 2 and 3) have questioned the motherhood of their mother (defendant No. 4) by calling her merely the second wife of their father in their greed to get some more share in the property and to add to their already existing riches and affluence as all appear to be very well placed and posted in the station of their life. They have named their brothers defendant Nos. 5,6 and 7, as the illegitimate children of their father from his second wife -defendant No. 4. The greed for more property has condemned the very hands which nursed, cared and brought up the plaintiff -son and his other brothers as highly educated men of status in the society. Love for mother is lost in the right to get property. They have called her in the folios of this suit only an illegitimate wife of their father and her sons as illegitimate ones. Let us now discern the question of their rights.

(2.) THE appellant is the original plaintiff, who had filed Regular Civil Suit No. 557 of 1984 for partition and possession of various properties, movable and immovable mentioned in the Schedule of the plaint. The appellant will be hereinafter referred to as the 'plaintiff'. The respondent No. 1 is the defendant No. 1 and the father of the appellant. The respondent Nos. 2 and 3 are the real brothers of the plaintiff and original defendants 2 and 3. It was the case of the plaintiff and the defendants 2 and 3 that they had 1/4th share in the ancestral property mentioned in the Schedule and, therefore, the suit was filed for partition and possession. It was contended by the plaintiff that the plaintiff and the defendants 2 and 3 are the sons of defendant No. 1 from his first wife Kesarbai, who died on 18.8.1974. It was the case of the plaintiff that his father -defendant No. 1 got married to the original defendant Nos. 4 for the second time during the life -time of his first wife and hence the second marriage is illegal and null and void and hence the children born to the defendant Nos. 1 and 4, i.e. defendant Nos. 5 to 9 are illegitimate and they did not have any share in the ancestral property.

(3.) ON the basis of the pleadings and oral and documentary evidence adduced before the Trial Court by both the parties the learned 2nd Joint Judge, Senior Division, Pune held that the divorce of defendant No. 1 and his first wife Kesarbai was legal and valid as per custom of their caste and, therefore, the subsequent marriage of the defendant No. 1 with the defendant No. 4 Vimalbai was valid and legal as the first marriage was not subsisting on the day when the defendant No. 1 married the defendant No. 4. It was further held that the plaintiff, defendants 1 to 3 and 5,6 and 7 were entitled to 1/4th share each. The present first appeal is filed by the plaintiff against the aforesaid judgment and order of the learned Joint Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune.