SHIAM LAL Vs. RADHA BALLABH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The subject-matter of the dispute in this case is a three-storeyed house situated in the town of Muttra. On the 20 May 1911, the site of this house and certain materials were sold by two separate deeds of sale. The site of the house was sold to one Ram Chand or Ram Chander who is the own brother of the present appellant Shiam Lal. The materials were gold to a man named Jamna Das and were afterwards sold by him to Ram Chander the man whose name has just been mentioned. The site was sold for Rs. 400 and the materials for Rs. 250.

(2.) Both these sale deeds are printed at pages 21 et seq. of our record. The vendors were Gopal Das and his son Piare Lal. The latter was acting for himself and for his two minor sons.

(3.) It appears that after these sales took place Ram Chander re-built the house. Then in the year 1914 a suit was filed by Mitthu Lal and others who were members of the family of Gopal Das. This suit eras brought in the Court of the Additional Subordinate Judge of Muttra, on the allegation that the sales made by Gopal Das, his sons and grandsons were not binding inasmuch as the property which had been sold was joint family property. The plaintiffs alleged themselves to be members of ii joint family with Gopal Das, and they, therefore, asked that the deeds of the sale might be cancelled and that Ram Chander might be ejected from the premises. 3. Ram Chander defended this suit and raised a variety of pleas. He denied that the family of the plaintiffs and Gopal Das, his vendor, was a joint family. He denied that property was joint family property and pleaded that he had acquired the whole of these premises from Gopal Das. He sat up a defence under Section 41 of the Transfer of Property Act and pleaded moreover that in no case could he be ejected without payment by these plaintiffs of the sum of Rs. 5,000, the amount which he had spent on the re-erection of the house.