BASANGAVDA CHANNAPPAGAVDA Vs. GANGAVA KUMMANGAVDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff, who is the mother of the last male holder of property admittedly vatan, having been postponed in the succession to the defendant as the nearest male member of the vatandar family, under Section 2 of Bom. Act V of 1886, has brought this suit to recover maintenance on the ground that she as the widow of a deceased male holder is entitled to maintenance from that holder s successors. The learned Trial Judge dismissed the suit on the ground that service and uncurtailed remuneration must go hand in hand unless the service incumbent on the hereditary office has been commuted, and that even if the property-had been the subject of the Gordon Settlement, it would not affect the incidents of vatan property unless it were shown that such incidents had been expressly altered or cancelled.

(2.) The lower Appellate Court, being of opinion that the property must, for reasons stated, be taken to have been the subject of the Gordon Settlement, allowed the plaintiff s claim on the ground that he who takes the bent fit of an inheritance must bear the burdens annexed to it in his predecessor s hands.

(3.) If the property is held under a sanad under the Gordon Settlement, each successive male holder is substantially holding an estate of inheritance in tail male unburdened by any duties of service, in which case the objections expressed by the Trial Judge to the incumbrance of an estate assigned as remuneration for public services may be disregarded.