BALMUKUND Vs. TULA RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a plaintiffs appeal and arises out of a suit brought to recover a sum of money alleged to be due to the plaintiffs on a theka given by them to the defendants for the collection of offerings to a certain deity installed in a temple, and for the cancellation of that theka, and for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the plaintiffs right of making the collections themselves.

(2.) The plaintiffs alleged that they were entitled to 13/48 share of the offerings made at the temple and that, on 24 August 1918, they leased out the said right to defendants 1 to 3, who executed a qabuliat in favour of the plaintiffs on the same date, at an annual sum of Rs. 900 for a period of five years viz., from the beginning of August 1918 to 31 July 1923. The present suit was with respect to the amount to which the plaintiffs claimed to be entitled for the years 1921 and 1922. The plaintiffs case was that defendant 4 was a member of a joint Hindu family with defendants 1 to 3 and that defendants 1 to 3 had taken the theka for the benefit and advantage of that family and, as such, all the four defendants were liable to answer the plaintiffs claim. The plaintiffs further alleged that the defendants were habitual defaulters and, not having paid regularly the amount reserved by the lease and the qabuliat to the plaintiffs, had, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the qabuliat and the lease, forfeited their rights as lessees.

(3.) The suit was contested by defendants 1, 2 and 3 and each of them filed a separate written statement.