RAMSARAN SINGH Vs. MAHABIR SEWAK SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant brought the present suit in the Court of the Additional District Judge at Bilaspur for a declaration that he is entitled to succeed to the Lafa Zamindari estate as the son of the late Zamindar Diwan Dehraj Singh. The family tree, so far as material, is as follows : It is not disputed that the appellant is the son of Dehraj Singh by Mt. Ful Kuar, and the only question in the appeal is as to the legitimacy of the appellant that is to say, whether there was a valid marriage between Dehraj Singh and Ful Kuar. The appellant no longer maintains that he is entitled to succeed even if he is illegitimate. It is also clear that, failing the appellant, respondent 1 is entitled to succeed to the Zamindari.

(2.) The District Judge decreed the suit in the appellant's favour on 23 December 1927, but on an appeal by respondent 1, the Court of the Judicial Commissioner, on 16 December 1929, set aside the decree of District Judge and dismissed the suit, which has led to the present appeal. Respondents 2 and 3 support the appellant's case and are only pro forma respondents.

(3.) The Lafa Zamindari is impartible and inalienable and is subject to the rule of primogeniture. There are seven such zamindaris in the Bilaspur District; at the time of the Settlement in or about 1867 the zamindars of all of them recorded themselves as Kanwars, an aboriginal tribe. But since that date it appears that they have come to call themselves Tanwars and have been adopting some of the customs of, and have been claiming to be, kshatriyaa. In the present suit an attempt by the respondent to establish that Kanwars and Tanwars could not legally intermarry has been rejected by both Courts below, and it has been held that Tanwars and Kanwars are both Sudra sects and that they can legally intermarry. Accordingly it must be taken that Dehraj Singh, a Tanwar, and Ful Kuar, a Kanwar, could legally marry. In 1900 Dehraj Singh, who had married three wives, but had no children by any of them, was anxious to have a son to succeed him in the zamindari and took the advice of the Brahmins, who advised him to marry a fourth wife by a different form of marriage, viz., the katar form, so as to keep off the evil effects of stars. Mt. Ful Kuar, who was the girl selected was staying with her grand-father at Bijaybhawan, a hamlet of Mouza Bagdara, but instead of marrying her there, Dehraj Singh sent a palki with a katar, or daggar, inside it, to bring her to Lafa. The palki was accompanied by his brother, Deo Singh, and others, and brought her to Lafa.