SRINIVAS PRASAD SINGH Vs. KESHAVA PRASAD SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, who attained majority in 1923, filed the present suit on June 12, 1926, seeking to set aside a compromise decree passed in 1912, by the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal. On January 25, 1932, the appellant's suit was dismissed for want of prosecution by a judgment and order of the High Court passed in its original jurisdiction (Lort Williams J.), which was affirmed on appeal by a judgment and order of the High Court dated July 11, 1932. Hence the present appeal.

(2.) The litigation is concerned with the title to the Dumraon Raj, a large and important estate situated in the Shahabad District of the Province of Bihar and Orissa and other places, and ether properties pertaining to the Raj.

(3.) In 1894, the then Maharaja of Dumraon, Sir Radha Prasad Singh, died leaving no male issue, but leaving a widow, Maharani Beni Prasad Kuari, and a daughter. By an authority executed and registered in 1889, which he confirmed by his will, the Maharaja had empowered his widow to adopt a son to him. On his death, the widow took possession of the estate, and held it until her death on December 13, 1907, when it was claimed on the one hand by the present appellant, who maintained that he had been duly adopted by the widow on the day before her death, and, on the other hand, by Keshava Prasad Singh, who, failing such adoption, was the next person entitled to the estate, and was the first respondent in the present appeal, but has since died, his representatives being substituted in his place.