NAND RAM AND OTHERS Vs. CHETU AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SUKHU , a Kanet Rajput of Kulu Tehsil, gifted his agricultural land and house property to Chetu and Dolu, sons of Tofi. Nandu Ram, Dalla Ram, Jagat Ram and Pars Ram, real brothers of Sukhu donor, instituted the suit out of which this appeal has arisen, challenging the gift made by the said Sukhu. Plaintiffs maintain that they are governed by custom, and that the property in suit being ancestral in the hands of Sukhu donor qua the plaintiffs the gift in suit is not binding on their reversionary interests. In the plaint it is stated that Chetu and Dolu were not the sons of Mt. Baldasi, daughter of Sukhu from the loins of Tofi.

(2.) CHETU and Dolu defendants resisted the suit claiming to be the sons of Mt. Baldasi, daughter of Sukhu. They then pleaded that the property was not ancestral in the hands of Sukhu qua the plaintiffs and that the gift was valid under custom.

(3.) THE trial Court found the house property and a portion of the land in suit to be ancestral qua the plaintiffs and the remaining portion of the land to be non -ancestral. The trial Court then found that according to custom governing the Kanet Rajputs of Kulu Tehsil a sonless proprietor is competent to make a gift of his ancestral property to his daughters or his daughters' sons. On the question of relationship the trial Court found Chetu and Dolu donees to be the sons of Tofi and Mt. Baldasi. On the findings reached by the trial Court, the suit failed and was dismissed with costs on 37th July 1945.