JAIMAL SINGH BASANT SINGH Vs. THAKURI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a plaintiff's appeal against a judgment and decree of Mr. Gulal Chand Jain, Sub-Judge 1st Class, Nawanshahr, dated 16-2-1950, dismissing the plaintiffs' suit and holding that amongst Rajputs of Nawanshahr tehsil in Jullundur district daughters exclude collaterals from inheritance to self-acquired property.

(2.) The property in dispute is a sum of Rs. 17,686/1/- which were lying in deposit in the post office and in the Imperial Bank of India in the name of Narain Singh deceased. Mst. Thakri, a daughter of Narain Singh, obtained a succession certificate and the plaintiffs, who are a brother and a nephew of Narain Singh, have brought a suit for declaration that they have a preferential right to succeed on the ground that Narain Singh and they formed a joint Hindu family and that even under custom they have a preferential tight to succeed to that of Mst. Thakri, who is a daughter. The learned trial 1954 Punjab/1 & 2 . Judge_ found that the parties were not members of a joint Hindu family and were governed by custom and that the daughter was a better heir than the collaterals, the property being self-acquired.

(3.) It was found by the learned Judge that out of the amount in dispute the deceased had brought a part from Australia and the rest he had made in India and therefore the whole of the amount was self-acquired. The parties are Menton Rajputs belonging to a village and are amongst the dominant agricultural tribes of the State and it has been rightly held that they are not governed by Hindu Law but by custom.