BIRJEE Vs. PIRTHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this appeal under clause 10 of the Letters Patent the short question involved relates to interpretation of Section 15 (2) (a) of the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ).

(2.) THE property sought to be pre-empted originally belonged to Gulzari, father of the appellant Smt. Birjee. He had another daughter Smt. Mahakauri. On Gulzari's death without a male issue or a widow his estate was mutated in equal shares in favour of Smt. Birjee and the sons and daughters of her sister Smt. Mahakauri, who had predeceased her father.

(3.) ON the 9th January, 1962, the land inherited by Inder, Mahavir and others (sons and daughters of the said Smt. Mahakauri) was sold away by them to Pirthi singh, Sajjan Singh and Dala Singh respondents for Rs. 11,000/- Smt. Birjee thereupon sued to pre-empt the sale on the ground that she was a co-sharer. Denying that the plaintiff had any right of pre-emption the vendees pleaded, inter alia that the land in suit was no longer joint, the parties being in possession of specific khasra numbers. The learned trial Judge however, rejected this plea and decreed Smt. Birjee's suit on payment of Rs. 11,000/ -. In appeal, the learned additional District Judge, without going into the plaintiff's claim that she was co sharer reversed the decree of the trial Court on the finding that the property in dispute having come into the vendors' hands from their maternal grandfather gulzari, the case fell under section 15 (2) (a) of the Act and the right of preemption did not vest in a co-sharer the sole ground on which the plaintiff has based claim. This finding having been upheld by a learned Single Judge of this court the pre-emptor has come up in further appeal.