RAM BRICHH SINGH Vs. CHHAKAURI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are two appeals by the same set of plaintiffs and are directed against the same set of defendants.

(2.) The facts of the case are given with sufficient detail in the almost exhaustive judgment of the learned District Judge. Only one point is not mentioned in that judgment, but on it there is no controversy.

(3.) The plaintiffs predecessor-in-title Deoki Singh, made a usufructuary mortgage of sir plot bearing No. 90, dated the 27 of June, 1861, in favour of one Nandu Bhaiya. It is this mortgage that is being now sought to be redeemed by Deoki Singh's sons, the plaintiffs in the case. The defendants to the suit claim to be the proprietors of the entire property which once belonged to Deoki Singh under various transactions, most of which are detailed in the judgment of the learned District Judge. It appears that Deoki Singh, after executing the mortgage of the 27 of June, 1861, made a mortgage by conditional sale of his entire zamindari property on the 29 of September, 1861 in favour of one Sundar Prasad. Janki Prasad, the predecessor-in-title of the defendants, and another brought a suit for pre-emption. The result was that the entire mortgage over the entire property of Deoki Singh was split up into two equal shares and one share was given to Janki Prasad as the pre-emptor on payment of half their mortgage-money. The plaintiffs who had pre-empted the other half did not pay the purchase-money and the property remained with the mortgagee Sundar Prasad. Sundar Prasad's interest was, therefore, reduced to one-half of the entire mortgage. Subsequently it appears that in 1874 or thereabout Janki Prasad foreclosed his half interest in the mortgage and became the owner of one-half of Deoki Singh's property. This incident is, not mentioned in the judgment of the learned District Judge, but documentary evidence has been read out to me from the record and the fact is mentioned in the written statement) of the defendants. Deoki Singh's sons, the plaintiffs, do not claim to possess any proprietary interest whatsoever in the property which once belonged to Deoki Singh. In 1887 Sundar Prasad's heirs Doda Singh and others brought a suit for foreclosure of one half-share in the mortgage. To this suit Janki Prasad's sons were parties. Deoki Singh was also a party. The suit ended in a compromise dated the 28 of February, 1887. The learned District Judge has relied on a portion of this compromise and has inferred that Deoki Singh's interest in sir lands came to an end by virtue of the provisions of the compromise. We can leave this point for the present. As one of the results of the compromise, Janki Prasad's heirs paid up the heirs of Sundar Prasad and became, by foreclosure, the owners of the remaining half of the property of Deoki Singh. Thus, the defendants are the proprietors of the entire property which once belonged to Deoki Singh. There is no controversy on this point.