BEG Vs. ALLAH DITTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment and decree of the Chief Court of the Punjab, dated the 23rd of December, 1908 and arises out of a suit instituted by the-plaintiffs, respondents, so long ago as the 4th April, 1900, in the Court of the Additional District Judge of Jhang, for possession of some landed property situated in that District.

(2.) The property in suit was owned and possessed by one Shahamad, a Mahomedan Jat, belonging to the sub-community of Dabs, settled in the Jhang District in Southern Punjab. Shahamad died many years ago, leaving a widow, Sahib Bibi and a daughter named Jindwadi, who was married to a near cousin of the name of Daim. The defendant, appellant, is the son of Daim and Jindwadi. On Shahamad s death, his widow succeeded to his entire inheritance and remained in possession until her death, which is stated to have occurred a year before the litigation commenced. On the widow s death, Jindwadi, acting on behalf of her son, obtained an order from the Collector for the registration of his name in the Revenue Registers as proprietor in succession to Shahamad.

(3.) The plaintiffs claim to be the collaterals or agnatic relations of Shahamad and as such entitled by the custom of their tribe or community to their share of his inheritance on the death of the widow, to the exclusion of his daughter and the daughter s son. The action, however, is confined to a moiety of Shahamad s estate, as it is admitted that Daim was also a collateral and entitled to a half.