PURNA SASHI BHATTACHARJI Vs. KALIDHAN RAI CHOWDHURI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment of the High Court of Bengal, dated the 14th of March 1906 reversing a decision of the Subordinate Judge of Tipperah; and the only point for determination turns upon the construction of a document executed in 1868 by two brothers, Krishna Kishore Chowdhuri and Naba Kishore Chowdhuri, subject to the Dayabhaga School of the Hindu Law, by which they purported to provide for the permanent devolution of their respective properties in the direct male line, including adopted sons, with the condition that in case of failure of lineal male heirs in one branch the properties belonging to that branch should go to the other, subject to the same Rule; and only in the absence of male descendants in the direct line in either branch were the properties to go to female heirs or their descendants.

(2.) Krishna Kishore died in June 1868, leaving him surviving, besides a son named Ananda Kishore and a daughter Durga Sundari, his brother Naba Kishore and their mother Kalitara. Ananda died in 1872 without any issue and Kalitara in March 1901.

(3.) The plaintiffs, who are the sons of Durga" Sundari, instituted this suit on the 29th of July 1901 against Naba Kishore, claiming as next reversioners to Ananda, their maternal uncle the properties which originally belonged to Krishna Kishore and after him to Ananda, and which had since come into the possession of the defendant (Naba Kishore).