BHAJNA Vs. MIHAN ETC

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The following pedigree-table indicates the relationship between the parties to the suit which has given rise to this second appeal by defendant No. 1 :

(2.) Chhaju, the grandfather of defendant No. 1 and the father of the other parties to the suit, owned agricultural lands in the revenue estate of village Mandi in Tehsil Phillaur out of which he made a Will (Exhibit D. 1) on the 14th of August, 1959, in respect of an area measuring 20 Kanals and 6 Marlas in favour of Bhajna defendant No. 1. The Will recited that Bhajna had been rendering services to the testator and that it was on that account that the latter was making the Will in favour of the former. After Chhaju's death that part of his land which was not the subject-matter of the Will was inherited by his four sons in equal shares, and two of his sons, namely, Mihan and Gulzara, instituted the said suit for possession of 10 Kanals and 3 Marlas of land, being one-half share of that devised in favour of Bhajna (defendant No. 1), against the latter on the plea that the land was ancestral qua them in the hands of Chhaju who was, according to the custom applicable to him, incompetent to alienate the same without necessity. The plaintiffs asserted that the Will was invalid also on the ground that at the time of executing it Chhaju did not have a disposing mind. The suit was contested by defendant No. 1, who was a minor through his father as his guardian ad litem.

(3.) The Will was found by the Courts below to have been properly executed. The land in dispute was found to be ancestral in the hands of Chhaju who was held governed by custom in matters of alienation, the custom applicable to the case being one which rendered the Will invalid.