ANAND KANWAR Vs. CHANDRAWATI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are two civil regular first appeals arising out of the judgment of the Senior Civil Judge, Jaipur City, dated the 19th December, 1956. Appeal No. 20 of 1957 is by the defendant Smt. Anand Kanwar while appeal No. 34 of 1957 is by the plaintiff Smt. Chandrawati. We propose to dispose of both these appeals by a single judgment.

(2.) IN order to appreciate the points in controversy the following pedigree table will be useful: Brother's widow Smt. Sohan (died in 1948) = Smt. Mans Kanwar (died in 1951) = Nand Kishore Singh (died in 1934) = Smt. Sohan Kanwar (died in 1950) Chandrabhan Singh (died in 1920) Mahavir Singh (died in 1943) Balwang Singh (died in 1953) Widow Chandrawati (Plaintiff) Widow Anand Kanwar (defendant) The plaintiff Smt. Chandrawati (Mahavir Singh's widow) filed a suit, out of which these appeals arise, for partition against defendant Smt. Anand Kanwar (Balwant Singh's widow ). The suit was filed with respect to as many as nine properties, the particulars of which are given in para 2 of the plaint, but we are concerned in this litigation with five of them only. These are items Nos. 4 to 8 as particularised in the aforesaid paragraph, which are all situated in the State of Rajasthan. The plaintiff's case put briefly was that her father-in-law Nand Kishore Singh had made a registered will (Ex. C. 1) on the 28th November, 1929, and that as a result of this will her husband had become a tenant in common with the defendant's husband Balwant Singh and, therefore, she was entitled to a half share in each of these properties. The plaintiff's grievance was that she had many a time asked the defendant to get a partition of these properties done half and half but the defendant had been evading this demand and consequently she was compelled to bring this suit in the Court of the Senior Civil Judge, Jaipur City on the 16th March, 1954. The defendant resisted the suit. The principal contentions raised by her were that the plaintiff was not the married wife of Mahavir Singh at all ; that Nand Kishore Singh had not made any will, as alleged ; that item No. 7 of the properties had been purchased exclusively by her husband's father Chandrabhan and, therefore, Nand Kishore Singh had no right to make any will with respect to it ; and that in any case it was Balwant Singh, her husband, alone who was entitled to these properties by a right of survivorship.