KASHI NATH Vs. BHAGWAN DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad modifying a decree of the Civil Judge of Ghazipur. The question raised in the appeal is as to the validity of a marriage between Bawan Das, an Agarwala by caste, and Lachmi Kuer, a Golwara by caste. At one time an issue was raised as to whether that marriage had been duly solemnized. That is no longer an issue in the case, there being concurrent findings of fact upon that question by the High Court and by the Civil Judge.

(2.) The parties to the appeal are these. Bawan Das had a first wife, by whom he had no children. He had a second wife, Mt. Bita Kuer, by whom he had one son, Kashi Nath, the appellant on this appeal. He then married his third wife, Lachmi Kuer, by whom he had two sons, Bhagwan Das and Bishwa Nath Prasad, who are the respondents to this appeal.

(3.) Bawan Das died on 25 August 1923. Some years after his death, the suit in which this appeal is brought was instituted by the present respondents, the sons of his third marriage, claiming against the son of his second marriage a share in their father's estate. The question is whether that marriage between Bawan Das and Lachmi Kuer, which is now admitted to have been duly solemnized, was valid. It is conceded that the marriage was valid if the Golwaras, the caste to which the third wife belonged, was a sub-caste of the Vaiahya caste, of which the Agarwalas were a sub-caste.