JAGDISH NARAIN Vs. NAWAB SAID AHMAD KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the judgment and decree of the High Court of Allahabad dated April 29, 1941, which modified a decree of the Subordinate Judge of Bareilly dated June 2, 1936.

(2.) The plaintiffs (who are respondents in this appeal) claimed possession of two-third parts of Muafi property situate in Mauza Bahra Bikram. Their case was that on January 8, 1842, the Government made a grant of the lands in suit in favour of the heirs of Ahmad Khan, who had married Sayara Begum the daughter of Nawab Hafiz Rahmat Khan, who had rendered valuable services to the Government which the Government were minded to reward. The plaint alleged that the grant was made enjoyable in perpetuity generation after generation for the maintenance and help of the heirs of Ahmad Khan, and that each heir was to hold for life only and on the death of an heir the next heir of Ahmad Khan was to take as such heir and not as heir of his predecessor. The plaint further alleged that Ahmad Khan had no male or female issue, and that after his death Musammat Mohammadi Begum was his heir according to Mohammadan law and entered into possession of his estate.

(3.) In the written statement of the several defendants the title of the plaintiffs was denied, and it was alleged that Sayara Begum, the widow of Ahmad Khan, was the absolute owner of the property in suit, and that in 1841 she made a gift of the property to Mohammadi Begum; that in 1854 Mohammadi Begum mortgaged the property, and in 1856 it was sold by the Court in a suit instituted by the mortgagee and was purchased by the predecessors in title of the defendants, and that the defendants and their predecessors have been in possession of the property ever since.