MOOSA GOOLAM ARIFF Vs. EBRAHIM GOOLAM ARIFF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Record in this case is more than ordinarily confused and the story is somewhat complicated. But for the purpose of this appeal the material facts may be stated in a few sentences.

(2.) One, Hadjee Goolam Ariff, a wealthy Mahomedan merchant residing at Rangoon, being dissatisfied with the conduct of his two elder sons was minded to dispose of the bulk of his property for the benefit of his two junior wives and his five younger children, who were all minors at the time. With this object he applied for and obtained five separate orders under the Act of 1890 for the appointment of one and the same person as guardian of each of his minor children in order that the children by their guardian might accept the benefits which he intended to confer upon them. Being also desirous that his property should remain in one mass, intact and undistributed, he procured the registration of a Limited Company called the Goolam Ariff Estate Company, Limited. To this Company in return for shares there was transferred so much of his property as was retained by him together with the undivided shares in his estate which he had conveyed to his junior wives and his minor children.

(3.) Hadjee Goolam Ariff died on the 15th of May 1902, having made his will on the 19th of the previous month. It was proved by his eldest son, Ebrahim Goolam Ariff, one of the executors therein named, on the 23rd of June 1902. From that time to the present there has been continuous and persistent litigation in which Ebrahim Goolam Ariff has endeavoured to set aside the disposition which .his father made. In all these attempts Ebrahim Goolam Ariff failed except in his appeal in the present suit to the Chief Court of Lower Burma. On that appeal the order was made from which the present appeal to His Majesty has been brought.