SUKHAMAYEE BISWAS Vs. MONORANJAN CHAUDHURY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the defendants against a decision of the Additional District Judge of Sylhet modifying a decision of the Munsif of the Second Court at Habignnge. The suit out of which this appeal arises was brought by the plaintiffs for declaration of their title to and for possession of certain property. He also claimed mesne profits which, I understand, were disallowed and in respect of which there is a cross-objection.

(2.) The case for the plaintiffs was that one Surjymani Sen was a jotedar; that he made during his lifetime a gift of the lands in question to his widowed daughter. The plaintiffs claimed to have purchased the land in suit after the widowed daughter's death from Defendant No. 5 who, the plaintiffs alleged, was the heir of the widowed daughter being her sister's son. The defence of the defendant was this: that the property was streedhan property and that on the death of the widowed daughter it descended not on the sister's son but on the step-brother or half brother of the widowed daughter as her preferential heir.

(3.) Both the Courts below have decided in favour of the plaintiffs contention holding that on the death of the widowed daughter the property descended to her sister's son and not to her step-brother. The lower appellate Court has relied on a decision of this Court in the case of Debi Prasanna Rai Chowdhury V/s. Harendra Nath Ghose [1910] 37 Cal. 863 to which I shall have presently to refer.