SHEOBARAN PANDE Vs. KISHUN PRASAD PANDE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The dispute in this appeal relates to some landed property and the main question for consideration is whether a certain compromise filed by the parties to the present suit in a mutation proceeding operates as a bar to the present claim.

(2.) The allegation of the plaintiffs was that Gajadhar Pande was the owner of the said property and that, on his death, which took place in Baisakh 1328, the plaintiffs alone were entitled to the estate. In the mutation proceeding which ensued on the death of Gajadhar Pande a petition of compromise was filed by the parties, were by each branch of the family to which Gajadhar Pande belonged, was allowed to remain in possession of a one-fourth share. The plaintiffs contended that the compromise was invalid and that it had been repudiated and cancelled by the parties themselves. The defendants, on the other hand, asserted that they were living jointly with Gajadhar Pande, and that they were entitled to the entire property left by him to the exclusion of the plaintiffs. In the alternative they pleaded that all the disputes between the parties in respect of the property in question had been settled by a compromise in the mutation case and that compromise amounted to a family settlement and was binding upon the parties.

(3.) The trial Court found that the compromise operated as a family settlement and was binding on the parties. It did not determine the other allegations made in the suit except in so far that it observed that the claim of the plaintiffs was based on untrue allegations and in the teeth of the terms of the compromise was not maintainable.