TAPESHWARI DEVI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this application the petitioners have prayed for issuance of an appropriate writ for quashing the notification, as contained in Annexure 1 to the writ application.

(2.) The fact of the matter lies in a very narrow compass. Sheo Bachan Bhagat was the original owner of the property. We had gifted 3.12 1/2 and 4.66 acres of land to the petitioner Nos. 4 and 5 respectively vide registered deed of gift dated 7-9-1962 and put them in possession of the said lands. He had also gifted 1.84 acres of land to one Om Prakash Bhagat, son of the petitioner No. 2, vide registered deed of gift dated 7-9-1962, and put him in possession thereof. The names of the said donees were also mutated and they are obtaining rent receipts on payment of rent. The names of the petitioner Nos. 4 and 5 and the aforementioned Om Prakash Bhagat were also mutated in Register II in respect of the gifted lands. Sheo Bachan Bhagat, father of the petitioners and the respondent Nos. 8 and 9, owned and possessed 131.04 acres of land, out of which he had gifted the aforementioned 9.62 1/2 acres of land to the petitioner Nos. 4 and 5 and the son of the petitioner No. 2.

(3.) After about two years of the said gift, Sheo Bachan Bhagat died in the year 1964 leaving behind his widow, Ramabati Devi, two sons, the respondent Nos. 8 and 9, and five daughters, the petitioners, and thus, on the death of Sheo Bachan Bhagat, the petitioners inherited 5/8th share in the properties left by their father and the remaining 3/8th share was inherited by the widow and two sons of Late Sheo Bachan Bhagat. Later on, Ramabati Devi, the mother of the petitioners and the respondent Nos. 8 and 9 and the widow of late Sheo Bachan Bhagat also died in the year 1973 and, on her death, all her sons and the daughters jointly inherited 1/8th share in the property. There has not been any partition of the properties left by Late Sheo Bachan Bhagat amongst his heirs by metes and bounds but, for convenience, the petitioners and the respondent Nos. 8 and 9 have been allotted separate lands out of the lands inherited by them.