GARIB SINGH Vs. HARNAM SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal arises out of a pre-emption suit instituted on 15.3.1967 by Harnam Singh, plaintiff-pre-emptor, whereby he sought to pre-empt the sale of the land in dispute effected on 15.3.1966 and jointly made in favour of Garib Singh and his wife Smt. Gurnam Kaur, by harchand Singh vendor of his one-fourth share in the joint Khewat.

(2.) The plaintiff-pre-emptor claimed superior right of pre-emption on the basis of his being a co-sharer of the vendor. It was alleged that though Garib Singh, one of the vendees, also enjoyed, before the sale in question, a right of pre-emption equal to that of the plaintiff-pre-emptor, but he lost that right by joining a stranger with him while making a joint purchase of the land in dispute and by doing so, he himself sank to the status of the stranger whom he joined with him in effecting the said purchase. Gurnam Kaur, one of the vendees, tried to remedy the aforesaid infirmity in Garib Singh's status qua the plaintiff-pre-emptor by making a gift on 10.6.1968 of her three-fourth share of the land jointly purchased by the two.

(3.) The short question that arises for consideration in this case is as to whether the action of Gurnam Kaur in gifting her share of the Purchase of the land in question to Garib Singh affects an improvement in the status of Garib Singh vendee-appellant in terms of Section 21-A of the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913 (Act 1 of 1913), hereinafter called the Act. The trial Court sought the answer to this question in the Single Bench decision of this Court reported in Hart Singh V. Damodar and others,1966 PunLR 45, wherein it was held that -