SAVITRI DEVI Vs. BILAT YADAV ALIAS KARU YADAV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This civil revision application is by the plaintiff. The question for consideration is as to whether on account of the death of defendant No. 1 the suit would abate as a whole.

(2.) The relevant facts are as follows. Mt. Parmi Devi (defendant No. 3) claiming herself to be the mother of the plaintiff, executed a registered deed of sale in favour of defendant No. 1, Beyadar Singh. Several years thereafter this defendant No. 1 transferred the entire suit land in favour of Bilat Yadav, defendant No. 2, under two sale deeds dated 9-9-1570 and 27-5-1971. The plaintiff, who was then minor, instituted a title suit on his attaining majority in the year 1977 in the Court of the Munsif at Gaya for declaration that the sale deed executed by defendant No. 3 in favour of defendant No. 1 was illegal and inoperative and thus not binding on him and the subsequent purchasers, namely, defendant Nos. 11 and 2, did not acquire and right or title in the property. He also claimed some other consequential reliefs for recovery of possession and mesne profits.

(3.) Unfortunately for the petitioner, defendant No. 1 died sometime in 1978 in the trial Court before any written statement was filed by any of the defendants. The petitioner then made art application for expunging his name and thereupon defendant No. 2, took an exception by filing a petition that the suit itself bad abated on the death of defendant No. 1. The plea of defendant No. 2 has found favour with both the Courts below, i.e., the trial Court and the lower appellate Court, where it has been held that on account of the death of defendant No. 1 and in the absence of the substitution of his heirs and legal representatives the whole suit had abated. The petitioner has, accordingly, filed the present application.