MUSAMMAT LALI Vs. MURLI DHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The suit in this case was brought by Murli Dhar, the present respondent, against Musammat Lali, the present appellant, for possession of immoveable property belonging to the estate of one Dhanraj, deceased. The appellant is the widow of Dhanraj, and the respondent claimed the property under a double title ; first, as the adopted son of Dhanraj, and, secondly, under the terms of a will contained in a wajib ul arz alleged to have been duly recorded, in relation to a village lorming part of the property, by Dhanraj during his lifetime. The result of the litigation in India was to set aside the adoption as invalid according to Hindu law ; but the High Court at Allahabad gave the plaintiff a decree for halt the property claimed, on the ground that the clause in the wajib-ul-arz upon which the plaintiff relied was " a document of a testamentary nature," under which it was the intention of Dhanraj to make a bequest in favour of the plaintiff of a half-share in his property, and that this bequest was not contingent upon the validity of the adoption. No appeal has been filed against so much of the Judgment of the High Court as relates to the adoption, but the defendant has appealed on two grounds- first, that the clause in the wajib-ul-arz does not constitute a will; and secondly, that if it does, there was no bequest to the plaintiff apart from and irrespective of his adoption, and a valid adoption was the condition upon which the alleged bequest depended.

(2.) The term wajib-ul-arz in the North-Western Provinces is applied to what is considered to be the most important document contained in the official records relating to the village administration. Entries therein, properly made and authenticated by the signatures of the officers who made them, have been held by this Committee in the case of Rani Lekraj Kuar V/s. Baboo Mahpal Singh (1879) 7 I.A. 63, to be admissible in evidence under Section 35 of the Indian Evidence Act in order to prove a family custom of inheritance, or, under Section 48 as the record of opinions as to the existence of such custom by persons likely to know of it. In giving their Judgment their Lordships say " These wajib-ul-arz, or village papers, are regarded as of great importance by the Government. They were directed to be made by Regulation VII of 1822," the 9 section of which enacts that- It shall be the duty of collectors and of her offcers exercising the powers of collectors, on the occasion of making or revising settlements of the land revenue, to unite with the adjustment of the assessment and the investigation of the extent and produce of the lands, the object of ascertaining and recording the fullest possible information in regard to, landed tenures the rights, interests, and privileges of the various classes of the agricultural community. For this purpose their proceedings shall embrace the formation of as accurate a record as possible of all local usages connected with landed tenures, as full as practicable a specification of all persons enjoying the possession and property of the soil, or vested with any heritable or transferable interest in the land." and it was specially ordered that- The information collected on the above points shall be so arranged and recorded as to admit of an immediate reference hereafter by the Courts of Judicature.

(3.) As this Regulation was passed at the time of the introduction of a regular settlement of the land revenue into "the Ceded and Conquered Provinces," under which designation the districts afterwards known as "the North-Western Provinces" were at that time included, the object of the Government appears to have been to obtain a body of reliable contemporary evidence upon matters which might afterwards come into controversy, not only between the landholders and the Government, but between rival claimants to estates.