MADHO PARSHAD Vs. MEHRBAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this case, which was heard ex parte, the appellant did not impugn the findings of fact upon which the judgments he complains of are based; and his argument was addressed to a single question of law.

(2.) THE respondent, plaintiff in the suit, and his paternal uncle Zalim Singh, were the members of an undivided Hindu family, and, as such, were co-sharers of land in three villages situated in the district of Unao, in Oudh. Zalim died childless in January 1885. Seven days before his death he and Mussamat Chitta, therein described as his wife executed and delivered three deeds of sale to the appellant of his undivided share and interest in each of these villages, at prices amounting in all to Rs. 10,000, which were duly paid by the appellant. These sales were made by the deceased for his own personal benefit, without the consent of the respondent, and without legal necessity.

(3.) THE appellant conceded in argument that the rules of the Mitakshara law which prevail in the Courts of Bengal are applicable in Oudh to the alienation of interests in a joint family estate. He likewise conceded that the sales by Zalim Singh, being without the consent of his coparcener, and not justified by legal necessity, were according to that law invalid; but he maintained that the transactions being real, and the prices actually paid, the respondent could only recover the shares sold, subject to an equitable charge in his favour for the Rs. 10,000 which were received by Zalim.