BAKHSHI RAM BAISAKHI RAM Vs. DEWAT RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole question to be decided in this appeal brought by the defendant against an appellate Judgment and decree of Mr. Sheo Parshad, Senior Subordinate Judge, Karnal, dated the 20th of June, 1949 is whether the transaction which is sought to be pre-empted is a sale or merely a gift.

(2.) The Courts below have differed on this point, the trial Court holding that it was a gift and the appellate Court holding that it was a sale. The defendant was a servant of the American Mission and had served them for eighteen years. On the 29th May 1946 the Mission entered into several transactions by which large portions of land were alienated to different persons by documents, the apparent tenor of which was a sale. In this manner the Mission has sold away the whole of its land in village Santokh Majre in tehsil Kaithal of Karnal district.

(3.) The land, which has been alienated in favour of Bakhshi Ram defendant by a deed dated 29th May, 1946, is 40 Bighas and 4 Biswas which has taken the shape of a sale deed for Rs. 190/-. The deed recites that the money had already been paid and at the time of registration no money passed from the alleged vendee to the alleged vendors. There were eighteen other similar transactions which also were pre-empted but quite a large number of them did not proceed any further because of compromises which were arrived at between the parties.