SHRI SITARAM PANDIT Vs. SHRI HARIHAR PANDIT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is the son of Chimna Maharaj, deceased, and the respondents are the sons of Nana Maharaj, also deceased. This Nans. Maharaj was the natural born son of Chimna Maharaj but was given in adoption on the 24 of April, 1879, to Bhavanibai, widow of one Bala Maharaj. Nana Maharaj made a gift of certain lands, belonging to him in virtue of the adoption, to the appellant on the seth of March 1888. The respondents brought the suit, which has led to this appeal, to recover possession of those lands, on the ground that they were part of the joint ancestral property of their father and themselves, of which it was not competent for the father to make a gift.

(2.) The claim was resisted by the appellant on the ground that the gift had been made in consideration of the benefit conferred on Nana Maharaj by the fact of his having been given in adoption by Chimna Maharaj, father of the appellant, into the family to which the lands belonged, and also of the trouble which the said Chimna Maharaj had to undergo and the expenses he had to incur in persuading Bhavanibhai to make the adoption by giving her Rs. 8,000.

(3.) The Subordinate Judge, who tried the suit, disbelieved the story as to the trouble and the expenses, and held that, even if /he story were true, the consideration for the deed of gift in it dispute was opposed to public policy. He, accordingly, allowed the claim.