MT MUNNI BIBI Vs. TIRLOKI NATH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The property in dispute in this appeal is a house in Agra said to be worth Rs. 20,000. It has provided the parties with litigation for over forty years. It originally belonged to one Joti Pershad. On 27 January 1864, he executed a deed by which he purported to give it to his wife, Bibi Mukandi, but it is said that the gift was not perfected by possession. Joti Pershad died in 1870, and his two sons Bishamber Nath and Amar Nath succeeded to his property. If the house had been effectively transferred to Mukandi the sons clearly took no interest in it; but when they came to a partition in 1881 it was allotted to Amar Nath who lived in it till his death in 1884. Thereafter his widow, Hira Dei, continued to live in it till her death in April 1907 when, if it was the property of Amar Nath, it devolved on his daughter, the appellant, Munni Bibi.

(2.) Mukandi died in 1891 and if the deed of gift was effective the house then passed as her stridhan to her two daughters. Batan Dei and Kashi Dei. Ratan died in 1894 childless, and Kashi in 1912; and assuming the title to have been with Mukandi, the house would now be the property of the first three respondents, who are descendants of Kashi. It is between these conflicting claims that their Lordships are called upon to decide. On the death of Hira, the widow of Amar Nath, the house was taken possession of by Gopal Nath, the son of Kashi, in the absence of the appellant, who was living with her husband in Patna, and she now sues for possession. The respondents' case is that the house was from the date of the deed of gift Mukandi's property, and that the occupation by Amar Nath and Hira was merely permissive. Mukandi was not a party to the partition of 1881, but, under an award of arbitrators by which it was effected certain benefits were conferred upon her in the shape of a monthly allowance of Rs. 250 and the transfer of another house at Muttra. Certain villages were also allotted to her daughters Ratan and Hira. The appellant contends that, Mukandi had full knowledge of the award, and accepted the provision so made for her and her daughters, and that she should therefore be taken to have acquiesced in the allotment of the Agra house to Amar Nath.

(3.) Whether this was what really happened or not is, of course, in dispute but both Amar Nath and Hira seem to have regarded themselves as the owners of the house. They mortgaged it on various occasions, but when the mortgagees attempts to enforce their security they were met by claims based on the deed of gift. At Amar Nath's death in 1884 his property, which appears to have been considerable, was heavily encumbered and, it seemed likely that everything would be swallowed up by his creditors. A suit had been instituted against him in 1863 upon a mortgage which included the Agra house. This mortgage was attested by the husband and eldest son of Kashi, who also identified the mortgagors before the Registrar, and it is accordingly suggested that they could not have been ignorant of the transaction. On Amar Nath's death the suit was continued against Hira, and, in June 1889, a decree for sale was passed. In March 1890, Mukandi intervened, claiming the house-under the deed of gift, and her objection, was allowed, but Hira still remained in occupation; the mortgage decree was apparently satisfied out of other assets.