SAWAI SINGH Vs. UDE SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole point in this plaintiff's second appeal is whether in the Ambala District collaterals of the seventh degree are preferential heirs then sister's sons in regard to non-ancestral property.

(2.) According to the Riwaj-i-am of Ambala District the common custom is taht a daughter is excluded by the collaterals descending from a common great great-grandfather (shakarbaba) and sister will succeed in the absence of a daughter or daughter's son, the rule with regard to sons of sisters being the same. Mr. Tek Chand has submitted that the Riwaj-i-am of Ambala District must be taken to refer, as indeed to other Riwaj-i-ams, to ancestral property and therefore whatever be the right of the sisters or their sons in regard to ancestral property, non-ancestral property must be governed by the general custom of the Punjab which is contained in paragraph 24 of Rattigan's Digest, and he relies on a judgment of the Lahore High Court in Kirpa V. Bakshish Singh, 50 PunLR 220 where collaterals of the fourth degree where preferred to sister's son and the question was decided solely on the basis of paragraph 24 of the Rattigan's Digest. This judgment has been followed in two judgments of this Court in Santi V. Surjit Singh, L.P.A. 3 of 1948 and Banti V. Harnam Singh L.P.A. 15 of 1949. In all these cases the rights were decided in accordance with paragraph 24 of Rattigan's Digest which was held to lay down the general custom of the Punjab and unless it was rebutted it governed the parties.

(3.) In reply Mr. Shamair Chand relied on several judgments -