SARSWATI JIWA RAM Vs. RALLA RAM GONDA RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the Defendants in a declaratory suit arises out of the following facts; Mst. Saraswathi, Appellant 1, made a gift of her entire estate in favour of Jai Dev, her daughter's son, Appellant 2. Ralla Ram Respondent; a reversionary, challenged this gift on the allegation that snipe the parties were governed by custom and the property was ancestral he was the presumptive heir of Mst. Sarswati and consequently the gift was invalid and ineffective against his reversionary rights The suit was resisted both by Sarswati and lat Dev They denied 'that the parties were governed by customer that the Plaintiff was entitled to succeed, tot preference to the daughter's son and further pleaded that the matter had been decided in an earlier suit, the decisions wherein operated as-resjudicata. On merits, it was assert ed that -the gift in favour of the next heir was valid and binding on the reversioners, and therefore the Plaintiff had no locus standi to file the suit. The pleadings gave rise to the following issues:

(2.) Whether the parties are governed by custom in the matter of alienation and succession. If so what that custom is O.P.

(3.) Whether the property in suit is ancestral qua the Plaintiff and Defendant 3 O.P.