THAKUR AMJAL ALI KHAN Vs. NAWAB ALI KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal involves the right of succession to a Taluka in Oudh which is.known as Akbarpur and is said to be of the value of about 15 lakhs. The Taluka was granted after the annexation to one Fazl Ali whose name was entered in lists I and II of the lists prepared in accordance with the provisions of Section 8 of the Oudh Estates Act, 1869.

(2.) The succession opened on the death of Fazl Ali on the 30 of August 1888.

(3.) Fazl Ali had four wives, including Shah-enshah Begum, the 2nd respondent, whose marriage is disputed by the appellant. If married she was Fazl Ali's third wife. Fazl Ali had also three concubines, daughters of a woman named Bandi. By his first wife Fazl Ali had one son called Akbar Ali, who was born in 1835. Akbar Ali is described in the judgment under appeal as " a headstrong young man of dissolute habits." In 1857, under circumstances which are not explained, he murdered Bandi and fled from Akbarpur. Shortly afterwards he seems to have taken possession of Kallia village belonging to the Taluka-without his father's permission. There ho was joined by a woman of the name of Waziran, a daughter of one Pokhar, a menial servant in the family, with whom it is alleged that ho had had an intrigue before his flight from Akbarpur. The appellant's case is that Akbar Ali was lawfully married to Waziran.lt is asserted, on the other side, that there was no marriage though Akbar Ali and Waziran cohabited as man and wife. Of this union there was issue a son called Abbas Ali. Akbar Ali died in 1884 and then Fazl Ali ejected Akbar Ali's family from Kalli. They seem to have lived in great poverty for about two years. At last Fazl Ali, though never reconciled to his son Akbar Ali, took pity upon them, brought them to Akbarpur and maintained them there. And there Waziran and her family and two prostitutes who were kept by Akbar Ali, lived together, as it is said in one apartment. Abbas Ali was the father of Amjad Ali. the plaintiff in the suit and the present appellant.