SURENDRAKESHAV ROY Vs. DOORGASUNDARI DASSEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON the 19th of April, 1879, Rajah Bejoy Keshav Roy, being at the point of death, made his will in the following terms: I am now ill. God forbid it, but if any mishap occur therefrom, and from fear thereof, I do while of sound mind dedicate and give to Sree Sree Isshur Annapoorna Thakooranee, the Thakoor established by my deceased father, all the ancestral and self-acquired moveable and immoveable properties, zemindaries, and putnee, &c., whether as my own name or banamee, to which I am entitled and of which I am in possession. I have no sons or daughters of my loins. I have two wives living, viz., Sreemutty Ranee Nobo Doorga, the elder, and Sreemutty Ranee Doorgasundari, the younger. Each of the two Ranees will adopt one son. God forbid it, but if the son adopted by either Ranee should die, or be unfit for duty by reason of illness of any kind, then in such a case she will be competent to take in adoption a second son, and so on to a third. The two adopted sons of both wives shall remain the shebaits of the whole of the moveable and immoveable property dedicated to Annopoornah Thakooranee aforesaid. They will carry out the supervision and the improvement of the said property. But they will do everything according to the advice of all the principal officers appointed by me. They will not be competent to make gift or sale of the different properties. Up to the time that the said two adopted sons do not attain their majority, my aforesaid two wives will exercise the care and control of all the said properties, and in carrying out these duties they shall take the advice of all the principal officers which have been appointed by me. They will not be competent to act otherwise. When the two adopted sons shall have attained their majority, and shall have acquired sufficient knowledge for the preservation of the property, nay two wives shall make over to them as shebaits, to their satisfaction, all the property dedicated to the Issur Deb sheba. Out of the income of the property dedicated to the Deb sheba, &c., after performing the sheba of the above-mentioned Annopoorna Thakooranee, and the Sree Sree Issurs established by my ancestors and myself, and after meeting the prescribed monthly allowances, and after performing the daily and fixed rites and ceremonies, as they are now performed and met, out of the profits which shall remain, each adopted son shall receive at the rate of 1000 (one thousand) rupees monthly. Therefore, while of sound mind and understanding, I execute this instrument of will. Finis, date 7th Bysack, 1286.

(2.) THE next day the Rajah died, and the two Ranees mentioned in his will became his heirs-at-law. The estate is a large one. There is no precise evidence of its amount, but it is stated that the yearly income is not less than a lac of rupees. The elder Ranee appears to have relied for advice mainly upon her brother, Kaliprosono, and a pleader named Tarrucknauth; the younger upon her father, Bhobodaini Mitter, and a pleader named Upendra Bose. There was a long delay in obtaining probate of the will, which, however, was granted to the Ranees on the 30th of December, 1880.

(3.) THE ladies determined to make a double adoption. How far they were guided by legal advice, how far by a pious desire to fulfil the directions of their husband, we cannot tell. They and their advisers certainly knew of the legal doubts and difficulties attending a double adoption. But one thing was quite clear. If they were to procure sons for their husband at all, it must be by the simultaneous adoption of two, for the will authorized no other course. It was impossible even to try the question whether their husband's wishes could be fulfilled, unless two boys were found whose parents were willing to give them in adoption one for each Ranee.