RAMSARAN SAO Vs. BHAGWAT SHUKUL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of a suit for the partition of a house situate in Mahalla Kharadi in the town of Bihar Sharif. The appellant was defendant No. 2 in the suit.

(2.) This house formerly belonged to a Joint Hindu family governed by the Mitakshra law, consisting of one Jhaman Ram and his son Rameshwar Ram, husband of Musammat Kapurni, who is defendant No. 1 in the present suit.

(3.) Rameshwar Ram died on 11-3-1938, and Kapurni succeeded to his interest in the property under the Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act, 1937, peelings between Musammat Kapurni and her father-in-law do not appear to have been pleasant, and on 12-7-1939, Jhaman Ram executed a deed of gift transferring the entire property to Bhagat Shukul, plaintiff in the present suit, who at the same time executed a mukarrari deed in favour of Jhaman Ram entitling him to remain in possession of the house so long as he lived. Musammat Kapurni thereupon filed a pauper suit, Title Suit No. 24 of 1940, in the court of the second Subordinate Judge, Patna, attacking the deed of gift as collusive and unreal. The suit was decreed and the decision was upheld both by the District Judge and by the High Court in -- 'Bhagwat Shukul v. Mt. Kapurni', AIR 1944 Pat 298 (PB) (A). Bhagwat Shukul has now sued for partition, claiming an eight annas share in the property. He has succeeded in the Courts below. The appellant to whom Musammat Kapurni has transferred her interest in the property attacks the correctness of the decision on the ground that the plaintiff has no interest in the property.