RAMKISHORE KEDARNATH Vs. JAINARAYAN RAMRACHHPAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This was a suit instituted-to use the words of Article 126, of Schedule 2, to the Indian Limitation Act of 1877-" by a Hindu governed by the law of the Mitakshara, to set aside his father s alienation of ancestral property."

(2.) The plaintiffs, the appellants, are the four sons of the defendant Kedarnath. The defendants are one Jainarayan, Kedarnath, and certain assignees from the former. The case made by the plaint, so far as material to the present appeal, is that the plaintiffs and their father were the owners of a joint undivided ancestral estate subject to the Mitakshara law, and that Kedarnath, in October 1898, improperly made a disposition of part of it by way of partition to the defendant Jainarayan. The relief formally claimed was that " each of the defendants may be ordered to deliver them the possession of whatever property he has with him out of that mentioned in paragraph 11," with consequential relief.

(3.) The suit was instituted on 20th December 1907. The first plaintiff was alleged to have been born on 20th December 1886, the other plaintiffs being younger. The plaintiffs alleged that the estate had descended to two brothers, Ramnath and Rambilas, neither of whom had issue, that in 1877 the former adopted the defendant Kedarnath, that Rambilas died in 1881, and Rarmmth In 1883, whereupon Kedarnath became solely entitled, that about 1886 or 1887 the widow of Rambilas, whose name had previously, with the consent of Ramnath, been entered in the local register as a joint owner in place of Rambilas, adopted Jainarayan as the son of Rambilas, and that his name was thereupon entered as owner in her place, that the adoption of Jainarayan was invalid for various reasons stated, and that in 1898 Kedarnath "gave" a specific part of the estate to Jainarayan, who has since claimed and enjoyed the separate possession of it. Under these circumstances, the plaintiffs claimed restitution of the part so given.