ADMINISTRATOR-GENERAL OF WEST BENGAL Vs. SULAJINI DEBI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a suit to establish the plaintiff's title in premises No. 36, Derpa Narayan Tagore Street. The property in question is situate within the jurisdiction of this Court. The Administrator General as the administrator de bonis non to the estate of Raja Profulla Nath Tagore claims this property as included in the estate. Raja Profulla Nath Tagore died on July 2, 1938. It is common case that he left a will. The residuary legatees are his five sons. The five sons along with others were appointed executors. On their application a probate was granted by this Court to the said five sons of the Raja. Subsequently the administration of the estate was given by an order of this Court to the Administrator General.

(2.) IT is pleaded in the plaint that the premises in suit is the secular property of the late Raja. During his lifetime Raja enjoyed the property as his own and thereafter it was being treated as such by his family. Only in two rooms the deity defendant was allowed to reside. The deity defendant has no title in the said property which constituted the secular property of the late Raja, it is pleaded that in Suit No. 258 of 1946 instituted in the Court of Subordinate Judge, Alipore, the property has been declared to be debottur belonging, to the defendant deity. This decree has thrown a cloud over the plaintiff's title. Hence the present declaratory suit has been instituted to establish the title of the late Raja and his estate in the said property. By way of consequential relief injunction has also been prayed for.

(3.) TWO issues have been raised which I am called upon to decide at this stage by way of preliminary issues. They are: