SABHA RAM Vs. KISHAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiffs and arises out of a suit for a declaration that a house and certain zemindari property were not attachable in execution of a decree held by Kishan, defendant 1 against Hari Ram, defendant 2, who is the father of the plain-tiffs. On 6 August 1925, Kishan sued Hari Ram on a promissory note, dated 29 April 1923 and obtained a decree against him on 16th February 1926. In execution of this decree the properties in dispute were attached on 20 June 1926 and eventually sold to the decree-holder on 15 November 1926. The judgment-debtor did not intervene at any stage of the execution proceedings.

(2.) The present suit was instituted by the minor sons of the judgment-debtor on 29 November 1926. The Court of first instance decreed the claim with reference to the house but dismissed the claim with reference to the zemindari property. The lower appellate Court has reversed the decision of the trial Court with reference to the house with the result that the plaintiffs claim stands dismissed in its entirety.

(3.) The Court of first instance definitely came to the conclusion that the house belonged to a joint family consisting of Hari Ram and his sons and that Hari Ram was an agriculturist and that his chief profession in life was agriculture. It gave the plaintiffs a decree on the ground that they had a share in the ancestral house and that this property was immune from attachment under Section 60, Clause (1), proviso (c), Civil P.C. The lower appellate Court reversed the decision on the ground that it had not been proved satisfactorily that the main source of income of the plaintiffs was agriculture and that the property having passed out of the hands of the family by sale in execution of the decree against the father, the sons were not entitled to the protection of Section 60, Civil P.C.