BALGOBIND, SINCE DECEASED Vs. BADRI PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a decree of the Court of the Judicial Commissioner of Oudh, which reversed a decree of the Subordinate Judge of Conda, and dismissed the suit. The suit was a suit for the possession of the village Aunian Durga in the district of Gonda, and for mesne profits, and it depended on whether there was or was not a family custom in the village by which daughters and their issue were excluded from inheritance. The Subordinate Judge found that there was such a custom and decreed the suit. The Court of the Judicial Commissioner on appeal found that the custom was not proved, and accordingly dismissed the suit.

(2.) In order to understand how this question as to a custom excluding daughters and their issue from inheritance has arisen in this suit, it is necessary to refer briefly to the family to which the plaintiff, Balgobind Pande, had belonged. Balgobind Pande and his three elder brothers, Sital Prasad Pande, Radha Pande, and Ragbubar Pande, had, with their father, Narain Dat Pande, constituted a joint Hindu family which was governed by the law of the Mitakshara subject to any lawful variation of that law by custom. A lawful variation of that law would be a custom which excluded daughters and their issue from inheritance. Such a custom is not uncommon in Oudh and in other parts of India.

(3.) The elder brother of Narain Dat Pande was Harnarain Pande, who was a sanad holder, and was possessed of considerable immovable property in Oudh. Harnarain Pande gave some of his villages to Narain Dat Pande absolutely. Narain Dat Pande also acquired other villages, one of which was the village Binduli. Their Lordships do not know when Narain Dat Pande died. At the settlement in Oudh after the Mutiny, the villages which Narain Dat Pande had self-acquired and those; which he had acquired by gift from his elder brother were by courtesy described as taluqa Binduli, and the property was in. the settlement papers referred to as a taluqa. It is not necessary to consider whether that property was or was not correctly described as a taluqa.