SURJIT SINGH Vs. MOHINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Dua alias Bhan Singh, father of Maghar Singh, defendant-respondent and grandfather of plaintiffs-respondents willed away the suit land to the plaintiffs-respondents through a registered will dated 22nd June, 1949. He died on 29th July, 1952. On his death, the mutation of inheritance regarding the suit land was sanctioned in favour of said Maghar Singh on 28th January, 1956. Thereafter, said Maghar Singh effected alienation of the said land by way of mortgage and sale in favour of other defendants-respondents. On 20th July, 1964, the two grand-sons aforesaid of Bhan Singh namely Mohinder Singh and Inderjit Singh, plaintiffs-respondents filed the present suit for possession against Maghar Singh and others and claimed the ownership of the property on the strength of the aforesaid will from Bhan Singh in their favour.

(2.) While Maghar Singh allowed himself to be proceeded against ex parte, the other defendants contested the suit inter alia by challenging the validity of the will. They also termed the suit as collusive. The defendants, however, did not press issue No. 2 relating to the collusive nature of the suit even in the trial Court itself.

(3.) The trial Court found the will to be valid and duly executed. It also found that the vendees in question were competent to challenge the alienation of the land by Bhan Singh through the will in question, as the parties were governed by Customary Law. The trial Court partly allowed the suit regarding so much of the suit land as was not found to be ancestral in nature and regarding the ancestral part of the suit land, it was dismissed. The plaintiff-respondents went up in appeal. The appellate Court reversed the findings of the trial Court whereby it had dismissed the plaintiffs-respondents suit regarding the land which was found to be ancestral in nature, with the result that the plaintiffs-respondents suit stood decreed in its entirety. The decree and judgment of the lower appellate Court is now challenged in the present appeal at the instance of the vendees-defendants from said Maghar Singh.