GURDEEP SINGH Vs. CHARAN SINGH AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal was filed on 9th December, 2009. The Registry raised objections which were removed and the case was re -filed on 15th March, 2010. The appeal came up for motion hearing, for the first time, on 18th August, 2010 when a request was made for an adjournment. The case was adjourned to 22nd December, 2010. Thereafter, the requests for adjournments were made one after the other before the same and different Benches which add up to 6 adjournments uptill 22nd December, 2011 when the case was adjourned to 20th March, 2012. On 4 of those dates, none appeared for the appellant but this Court adjourned the appeal on either written or oral requests obviously to avoid any miscarriage of justice and to hear counsel on the second appeal. Ultimately, when none appeared on 20th March, 2012 and after the case was called twice and the appellant went unrepresented, the Court then recorded that even on previous dates, nobody appeared and repeated adjournments have been sought. The Court was left with no option but to dismiss the appeal in default and non -appearance. This led to filing an application for recall of the order which was graciously accepted on 4th July, 2012 and the appeal was restored. Even thereafter, 6 adjournments were sought up to 16th September, 2014 and in this long chain of adjournments, the matter was posted for hearing today.

(2.) AFTER hearing counsel Harsh Aggarwal appearing for the appellant, I would dismiss this appeal for the reasons stated below.

(3.) SHIV Kumar alias Shiv Singh son of Inder Singh son of Kirpa was said to be the joint owner in possession of the land measuring 2K -12M out of land measuring 5K -18M as reflected in the jamabandi for the year 1989 -90 in the suit village. Shiv Kumar alias Shiv Singh was also owner in possession of 5M out of land measuring 1K -7M in another village namely Tohlian, Hadbast #19, P.S. Mahilpur, Tehsil Garhshankar, District Hoshiarpur as depicted in the Headnote [b] of the plaint. Three properties were described in the plaint as [a], [b] and [c]. Shiv Kumar alias Shiv Singh died in the year 1988 unmarried and without issue. He left behind his natural heirs i.e. his brothers Hansa Singh, Parkash Singh, Darshan Singh and sister Gurbachan Kaur and Prakash and they succeeded to the said property and became owners in possession thereof to the extent of 1/5th share each coming from Shiv Kumar alias Shiv Singh. Hansa Singh died in the year 1997. The plaintiff pleaded that Hansa Singh executed a valid registered will in his favour. He is his sole legal heir and thus, he asserts that he has inherited 1/5th share in both the suit properties. Prakash died intestate leaving behind defendants # 6 to 9 his sons and daughter and widow defendants # 10 and 11, and thereby they became legal heirs and owners in possession of 1/5th share of the suit property after the death of Prakash. Darshan Singh died intestate in 1995 leaving behind defendant # 12 his widow, and his sons defendants # 13 and 14, daughters defendants # 15 and 16 and they have 1/5th share. That is how the present generation of the family are joint owners in possession of suit property.