GURDEV SINGH Vs. BALDEV SINGH AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mehar Singh, father of Baldev Singh and Sukhdev Singh plaintiff Nos. 1 and 2 and husband of Shrimati Basant Kaur plaintiff No. 3, owned more than 100 ghumaons of land out of which he orally mortgaged an area measuring 46 kanals 6 marlas for Rs. 5,000/- with Gurdev Singh defendant No. 1 on the 7th of June, 1957, when a receipt (Exhibit D. 2) for the amount was executed by him in favour of Gurdev Singh. By virtue of sale deed Exhibit D.1 dated the 13th May, 1958, the said area was sold by Mehar Singh to defendants Nos. 2 to 4. Out of the consideration for the sale, an amount of Rs. 5,000/- was left with the vendees for payment to Gurdev Singh mortgagee. After Mehar Singh's death, on the 6th of June, 1961, the plaintiffs instituted a suit for possession of the land alleging that they and their father were governed by custom in matters of alienation, that the land in suit was ancestral and that the mortgage and the sale were not supported by consideration and necessity. According to them, their father was a man of extravagant habits and spendthrift and the mortgage and the sale were void.

(2.) All the defendants contested the suit and controverted the allegations made by the plaintiffs. They averred that the land in dispute was non-ancestral and the two alienations in question were effected for consideration and legal necessity. The sale was also claimed to be an act of good management.

(3.) The parties went to trial on the following issues :-