LALA SURAJ PROSAD (MINOR) Vs. GOLAB CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a suit by one Lala Suraj Prosad, who is a minor suing by his next friend, and also by his step-mother, against one Golab Chand, and the object of the suit is to have it declared that a certain mortgage-bond for Rs. 6,900, dated the 4 of April 1893, executed by Lala Chander Koylash, who was the father of the minor plaintiff and the husband of the co-plaintiff, is not binding upon and cannot be enforced against the joint properties mentioned in the bond, and for consequential relief.

(2.) The case is governed by the Hindu Law of the Mitakshara School; and the facts, so far as they are necessary for the purposes of the questions we have to decide, may be briefly stated. The father of the minor plaintiff one Lachchanji succeeded his father in 1875 or 1876. At that time he was a minor; he attained his majority in November 1890, and then took over charge of the joint-family estate left by his father, the joint-family estate of a Hindoo family governed by the Mitakshara School of Law. Lachchanji married during his minority, and the minor plaintiff is his only son. Lachchanji appears to have borrowed money on mortgage- bonds of the family property in February 1891, in August 1891, in October 1891, and in May 1892, but the mortgage-bond, with which we have to deal, is one dated the 4 of April 1893 for the amount I have stated.

(3.) The sole mortgagor was Lachchanji who, at the date of the mortgage, was undoubtedly the kurta or manager of the property of the joint-family. On the 31st of August 1893, the present defendant, as mortgagee, instituted a suit against Lachchanji alone to enforce the mortgage, and in that suit the usual mortgage- decree was obtained on the 20 of February 1894.