JAGAT SINGH Vs. GURMINDER SINGH, ETC.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Regular Second Appeal has arisen in the following circumstances. Avtar Singh, Defendant No. 2, being entitled to a half share in 52 Kanals 14 Marias of land situated in village Mithra, Tehsil Phillaur, District Jullundur, sold the same to Jagat Singh, Defendant No. l, for Rs. 27,000 through a sale deed which was executed on the 1st of April, 1965, and is Exhibit D.l on the record. Two of his sons, both minors, filed the usual declaratory suit challenging the sale in accordance with the general custom prevailing amongst agriculturists in the Punjab on the ground that the land was ancestral and was sold without consideration and legal necessity. An alternative prayer was made for possession of the land by pre -emption and that is the relief with which we are now concerned.

(2.) THE suit was instituted on the 10th of July, 1967, and in paragraph 10 of the plaint it was pleaded that Defendant No. 1, who had left India for a foreign country in the month of December, 1965, had not returned till then and that the suit was, therefore, within limitation. The case of Defendant No. 1 on this point was that he had left India more than a year after the 1st of April, 1965. He controverted the plea that the suit was within limitation. The issue framed in this connection was - - Whether the suit for pre -emption is within time?

(3.) DEFENDANT No. 1 took an appeal to the District Judge which was dismissed with costs by Shri Dev Raj Saini, Additional District Judge, Jullundur, on the 7th of January, 1970. The only point agitated before him was the one covered by issue No. 3, in relation to which he confirmed the finding given by the trial Court. It is against the order passed by Shri Saini that Defendant No. 1 has filed this Regular Second Appeal.