BISARTI Vs. SUKARTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Letters Patent appeal is directed against the judgment in Second Appeal No. 983 of 1956, delivered on 21-8-1957.

(2.) The appellant Mst. Bisarti was the defendant in Civil Suit No. 17-A of 1954 of the Court of the 2nd Civil Judge (Class II), Schora. That suit was instituted by the respondents (plaintiffs) for possession of a house and certain tenancy lands in village Pakaria. Tahsil Sehora, District Jabalpur. Lachchi, who was the tenant of the lands and owner of the house, died in 1949, leaving the appellant Mst. Bisarti as his widow and Mst. Ranchi as his mother. Mst. Ranchi died on 7-41953 and Mst. Bisarti (appellant) remarried one Pandu in churi form according to the caste custom. The respondents are the sisters of Lachchi deceased. Their suit was based on the ground that after her remarriage, Mst. Bisarti (appellant) lost her rights in her husband's property and they being the nearest rcversioners were entitled to the property. They alleged that they took possession of the same ia October 1953, but they were dispossessed by the appellant. They, therefore, sued for possession of the lands and the house. It may be stated here that no date about the remarriage was stated in the plaint, but it was conceded before us that the remarriage took place some time in 1953. At any rate, it is clear that the remarriage took place before the commencement of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) as the present suit was filed in 1954.

(3.) The appellant as defendant denied that she remarried Pandu or that she lost her rights in her husband's estate. She stated that she continued in possession of the property all along and averred that the story of possession by the respondents-plaintiffs and subsequent dispossession was false.