GUJJAR SINGH Vs. MUNSHI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Sampuran Singh was the last male holder of suit land and the plaintiff-appellant is his sister's son. The said Sampuran Singh, prior to his death, which occurred on December 7, 1958, gifted away the suit land on January 27, 1951 vide Exhibit D.1. The above-said alienation was successfully challenged by the reversioners who obtained a declaratory decree, Exhibit P. 3, dated January 15, 1955.

(2.) After the death of above-said Sampuran Singh the plaintiff-appellant filed the present suit for possession of the suit land on May 21, 1963 claiming himself to be the only heir of Sampuran Singh being the latter's sister's son. In this suit the plaintiff-appellant has maintained that the defendant-respondent is in unlawful possession of the suit land, that the gift on which he stakes his right to the lawful possession of the suit land had already been held to be not binding on the reversioners of the alienator and that in any case the gift in question is illegal and void and not binding on the plaintiff as the land being ancestral property the alienor had no right to gift it away.

(3.) The defendant-respondent resisted this suit and in particular asserted that the plaintiff-appellant had no locus standi to maintain the present suit, and further that the present suit has been filed beyond limitation. The aforesaid pleadings of the parties led to the framing of the following two preliminary issues :-