MONOHAR MUKHERJEE Vs. SURESH CHANDRA MUKHERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the suit out of which this appeal has arisen the plaintiff sued for recovery of possession on establishment of title of two rooms and a certain varandah. The case of the plaintiff was that these rooms together with a very large property belonged to Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji of Uttarpara. This gentleman had three sons Hara Mohan, Raja Peary Mohan and Raj Mohun. Hara Mohan had two sons Rash Behari and Shiv Narayan. During Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji's lifetime the three sons Hara Mohan, Peary Mohan and Raj Mohan acquired considerable, properties of their own and these properties were managed by Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji in conjunction with his own property. About 9 years before his death Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji in 1879 executed a Will by which he dedicated certain of his properties, to a library. In this will he set out in detail which of the properties, under his management belonged to his sons. It is admitted that any property dealt with by him as his own is his own property. The plaintiff's case is that these two disputed rooms belonged not to Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji but to Hara Mohan and from Hara Mohan came to his sons Rash Behari and Shiv Narayan. Rash Behari apparently got into financial difficulty and two Receivers were appointed to his properties. It is the plaintiff's case that he purchased this property from the Receivers to the estate of Rash Behari Mukherji. The purchase was made by the plaintiff in 1915. The case of the plaintiff is that he never got possession of this properly after his purchase.

(2.) The defence was that the property belonged not to Hara Mohan but to Babu Joy Kissen and that it was by him dedicated to the use of the Uttarpara Public Library and that the Uttarpara Public Library had all along been in possession of it.

(3.) The Trial Court held that the property belonged not to Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji but to his son Babu Hara Mohan and on that finding he decreed the plaintiffs suit. On appeal the learned District Judge held that the property in dispute was dedicated by Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji to the Uttarpara Public Library, that it belonged to Babu Joy Kissen Mukherji and not to his son Hara Mohan and that the property in dispute had all along been in the possession of the Uttarpara Public Library being occupied by the library servants.