JAGRAN Vs. BASANTI BAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) INVOKING the revisional jurisdiction of this Court under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'the Code') the defendants applicants have called in question the sustainability of the order dated 29-9-99 passed by the learned District Judge, Bilaspur in Civil Suit No. 23-A/99.

(2.) SHORN of unnecessary details the facts which are necessary to be stated for disposal of this civil revision are that the non-applicant No. 1 as plaintiff filed a Civil Suit for accounts and for possession of half portion of the disputed land and the house, averring that her father Ramnath and Jagannath Prasad, father of applicants No. 2 and 3, were brothers and they constituted a Joint Hindu Family. It was further pleaded that the entire disputed properties were Joint Hindu Properties. It is alleged in the plaint that the defendants had sold the part of the property and were bent upon to sell other properties and this act of the defendants compelled the plaintiffs to file the instant suit claiming different reliefs. The defendant Nos. 1 and 3 filed their written statement which has been brought on record as Annexure A-2. The defendant Nos. 2 and 4 filed a separate written statement which has been brought on record as Annexure A-3. The essential pleading of the defendants is that Ramnath and Jagannath were not the members of Joint Hindu Family and the property had not been purchased from the Joint Hindu Family nucleus, but, in fact, the property had been purchased by Jagannath alone exclusively from his own earnings and he had constructed the house on the suit land out of his own funds.

(3.) AFTER the issues were framed the plaintiff/non-applicant No. 1 filed an application praying therein that the defendants should lead the evidence as they have taken the plea that the property was self-acquired property of Jagannath. A reply was filed by the answering defendants who prayed for rejection of such an application on the ground that the burden is on the plaintiff to prove her case, and thereafter, the defendants may be called upon to adduce evidence.