RAM GOPAL SINGH Vs. KALI BAKHSH SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the case of a dead executed by a pardanashin lady the law protects her by demanding that the burden of proof shall in such case rest not with those who attack, but with those who rely upon, the deed; and it must be proved affirmatively and conclusively that the deed wag not only executed by, but was explained to, and really understood by, the grantor. It must also be established that it was not signed under duress, but by the free and independent exercise of her will. Sajjad Husain v. Wazir Ali Khan (1912) I. L. R. 31 All. 455; I. R. 39 I. A. 166 followed.

(2.) THERE is no absolute rule that a deed executed by a pardanashin lady cannot stand unless it is proved that she had independent advice. The possession or absence of independent advice is a fact to be taken into consideration and well weighed on a review of the whole circumstances relevant to the issue of whether the grantor thoroughly comprehended, and deliberately and of her own free will carried out, the transaction; and if, upon such a review of the facts---which include the nature of the thing done, and the training and habit of mind of the grantor, as well as the proximate circumstances affecting the execution-the conclusion is reached that the obtaining of independent advice would not really have made any difference in the result, then the deed ought to stand.

(3.) HELD (reversing the decision of the Court of the Judicial Commissioner) that the evidence as to her strength of will and business capacity, and the fact that the deed was not, in the circumstances of her life, in any way an unnatural disposition of her property, want far, taken together with the other evidence in he case, to make it conclusive that the deed was granted by her as the expression of her deliberate mind and apart from any undue influence exerted; upon it; and that had independent advice been obtained the lady would have acted just as she did. Mahomed Buksh Khan v. Hosseini Bibi (1888) I. L. R. 15 Calc. 684; L. R. 15 I. A. 81. referred to.