SARAJ BASINI DEBI Vs. MOHENDRA NATH BHADURI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against an order made by the learned District Judge of the 24- Pergannas, dated the 10 of September 1926.

(2.) On the 28 of August 1926 an application wa3 made to the learned District Judge asking that your Honour will be pleased to direct an inquisition for the purpose of ascertaining whether Peary Mohan Roy of No. 46, Chakrabaria Road, North Bhowanipur, District 24-Pergannas, is of unsound mind and incapable of managing himself and his affairs and pass necessary orders for the management of the estate of the lunatic and for the maintenance of the dependent members of his family by authorizing the Court of Wards to take charge of the whole estate or otherwise as the Court thinks just and proper.

(3.) The application was made by Mohendra Nath Bhaduri and Brojendra Mohan Moitra being sons-in-law of the, alleged lunatic. The unfortunate gentleman, who was the subject of the proceedings, is a zamindar with considerable properties and is an advocate of this Court. The petition disclosed detailed facts of considerable strength. It would appear from the petition that Peary Mohan Roy had been attacked with insanity in the year 1918, again in 1922 and that in March 1926, he had again been suffering from marked mental derangement. Attached to the petition were medical certificates in very clear and definite terms by three medical gentlemen of experience and, indeed, of distinction. In the petition there was careful mention of the names and addresses of the near relatives of the alleged lunatic. No less than eleven persons are specified and their addresses are given. As a matter of fact the present appellant, who is the married sister of the alleged lunatic was not included in that list. In these circumstances I propose to estate first what I conceive to be the procedure that should have been adopted by the District Judge under the Indian Lunacy Act of 1912. Having done that I will then describe the procedure that was actually adopted.