SHEOPUJAN RAI Vs. BISHNATH RAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by Sheopujan Rai, defendant, arising out of a pre-emption suit. The facts of this case are complicated and it is therefore necessary to recite them in some detail.

(2.) On 22 July, 1925 a sale deed was executed by the vendor in favour of Sheopujan Rai. On 23 July 1926 a suit, No. 537, was filed by Bishnath Rai to pre-empt this sale. There was another suit No. 538 filed by Tulshi to pre-empt the same transaction. The rival pre-emptors were made pro-forma defendants in each other's suits, and the two suits were connected and tried together. During the pendency of these suits Sheopujan, the vendee, obtained a document purporting to be a deed of gift from one Bindhachal, and on the basis of it took the plea that he was on the same footing as the plaintiffs and had therefore a right to defeat their claim. On 25 August the plaintiffs in both the suits applied to the Court to implead three other persons whose names had not been entered in the sale deed of 22 August, 1925, but whose names had at the instance of Sheopujan Rai been mutated in the revenue papers. Two more suits were filed to challenge the transaction effected by the deed of gift on the ground that it was really a sale transaction and was liable to pre-emption. It is not necessary to refer to these latter suits any further, inasmuch as there is now a final finding of fact that the transaction was in reality one of gift and not a sale.

(3.) The trial Court overruled the defence of Sheopujan, the vendee, on the ground that he had associated with himself three other purchasers, although he had concealed their names, and that the gift being in his favour alone he could not take advantage of it. Both the suits were decreed.