KEDARNATH LAL Vs. SHEONARAIN RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals, Nos. 1447 and 1561 to 1570, all of 1950, and Nos. 1422 and 1423, both of 1951, thirteen in number, have consolidated and heard together, as they involve common questions of law and fact, and this judgment will govern them all. It will be more convenient to deal first with the first eleven appeals. Appeals Nos. 1447 and 1561 to 1570 of 1950.

(2.) These are plaintiffs' Second Appeals arising out of suits in ejectment. The plaintiffs and defendants Nos. 1 to 3 are common in all these suits Defendants Nos. 1 to 3 are the former owners of the suit lands and the other defendants are different persons who either claim to be purchasers at an-auction sale in execution of a money decree against defendants Nos. 1 to 3, or claim to have taken settlement of different portions of the suit lands from defendants Nos. 1 to 3 and from the said auction purchasers. The plaintiffs are the purchasers from, the mortgagee purchasers of the suit lands, and the main point at issue is whether they have acquired a better title than that of the defendants to entitle them to a decree for possession by evicting the defendants. The facts, no longer in controversy so far as they are necessary for the determination of these appeals, are briefly as follows. The suits relate to lands comprised in survey plots No. 3384 measuring 3 kathas 4 dhure and No. 3385 measuring 8 kathas appertaining, respectively, to khatas Nos. 175 and. 174 situate in mauza Buxar. One Lakshmi Narain was the previous owner of these lands. He died leaving him surviving three sons of his daughter, namely, Ramnarain Ram (defendant No. 1), Sheonarain Ram (defendant No. 2), and Gopal Ram who inherited these properties. In 1930 Ramnarain and Sheonarain instituted a partition suit, being Partition. Suit No. 8 of 1930, against Gopal. A preliminary decree was passed on 15th April, 1931, followed by a final decree on 10th September, 1932. There was a dispute about shares, and by this decree Gopal got one-half share and Ramnarain and Sheonarain together the remaining half in the properties inherited by them from Lakshmi Narain. At the time of partition by metes and bounds, the two plots in suit were allotted exclusively to Ramnarain and Sheonarain, who between them held half share each.

(3.) On 27-4-31, that is, before the final decree in the aforesaid partition suit, Ramnarain executed a, mortgage in fa'vour of the Buxar Trading Co-operative Society (hereinafter referred to as the Society) hypothecating his half share in as many as 27 plots including the two disputed plots to secure the repayment of the loan taken by him from the said Society. About two years later, on 20-4-33 the Society de-mortgaged these two plots and exempted them from security by a registered deed of release of date. Thus, the suit lands were rid of the encumbrance.