SECY OF STATE Vs. SRIMUTTY PARIJAT DEBI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from an order dated 24 April 1933, and made by the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal in its appellate jurisdiction, affirming an order made by a Judge of that Court on 17 March 1931. The facts out of which this appeal arises are shortly as follows: One Pasupati Mukherjee, a resident of Calcutta, died on 9 May 1919, possessed of considerable property, having made a last will and testament whereby he appointed the Administrator-General of Bengal as his executor. By the said will, after making specific bequests and provisions for certain annuities and for the marriage of his daughter, it was provided that:

(2.) The residual estate shall be divided among the children of my late brother, when all of them shall have attained majority. Till then it shall be in the hands of the executor. Half of my estate shall be divided equally among the sons of my late lamented elder brother and the remaining half shall be divided among my children in the proportion of two shares for a male child and one share for a female child.

(3.) The testator left surviving him his widow, Parijat Debi; a son Tirthapati Mukherjee, who died on 20 August 1929, a minor; a daughter, Pratima Debi, a minor; and his brother's sons, of whom two out of three are still minors. The Administrator-General of Bengal applied without delay as executor to the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal for a grant of probate of the will. A caveat was entered in the said proceedings by Parijat Debi, whereupon the matter was entered as a contentious suit, Suit No. 13 of 1920, as between the Administrator-General as plaintiff and Parijat Debi as defendant. The matter came on for hearing before Costello, J., sitting in the Original Side of the High Court, in its Testamentary and Intestate Jurisdiction and after 11 days the parties other than the Administrator-General came to an arrangement, which was embodied in an agreement dated 3 March 1928. The parties to the agreement were Tirthapati who was then an infant by his next friend and mother Parijat Debi of the first part, the said Parijat Debi of the second part, Pratima Debi, daughter of the said Pasupati, a minor, by her next friend and husband of the third part, Bidyapati Sreepati and Bimalpati, sons of Kasipati, the last two being minors by their mother and guardian Suvangari Debi of the fourth part and the said Suvankari Debi of the fifth part. By the terms of the said agreement the payment of the pecuniary legacies in the will was confirmed; the main alteration was in the shares of the residual estate.