JANGIR SINGH Vs. SEWA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE facts that have given rise to this second appeal and its reference to a Full Bench are these:

(2.) JANGIR Singh appellant was adopted by one Bishan Singh by means of a registered deed dated 8 -4 -1935. On Bishan Singh's death, which took place in the year 1942, the land left by him was mutated in the name of Jangir Singh, but the possession of it was taken by Sewa Singh and others respondents who claimed to be Bishan Singh's collaterals in the fifth degree. Jangir Singh then filed the present suit for possession of the land alleging that he was entitled to succeed to it as the adopted son of Bishan Singh. The defendants while denying the factum of adoption inter alia pleaded that the alleged adoption was invalid according to the custom by which the parties were governed and that the plaintiff had no right to succeed to the land which was ancestral in the hands of Bishan Singh 'qua' them.

(3.) A reference to the observations of some of the other authors on Customary Law may also be made in support of the view that I take. Shri Om Parkash Aggarwal M.A., P.C.S., in his book 'Customary Law in the Punjab' in para 101 of Section 4 instituted as "who may be adopted" says that an agnate is generally preferred though he may not be the nearest agnate. Dealing with the adoption of a stranger or a person of a different 'got', the author at page 574 observes that generally such a person cannot be adopted and the onus, therefore, of proving that a person of a different 'got' can be adopted, lies on the person asserting it.