SHIVAJIRAO MADHAVRAO Vs. VASANTRAO MADHAVRAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit is a pendant to the case of Vasantrao V/s. Anandrao (1904) 6 Bom. L.R. 925, decided by the appellate Court in September 1904, and subsequently by the Privy Council (1907) 9 Bom. L.R. 595.

(2.) The facts of the case, so far as they concern the question now before me, are the following. In 1889 there was a joint Hindu family consisting of one Kashinath, his two sons Ganpatrao and Madhavrao. Ganpatrao's six sons and Madhavrao's only son Vasantrao This family was possessed of considerable ancestral property. In January 1889, Vasantrao being then some five years of age Madhavrao found himself heavily involved in debt; and in consideration of his father's Kashinath paying Rs. 5,000 "in settling the debts and for various other considerations," Madhavrao executed a deed of release in his favour relinquishing all interest in the family property.

(3.) In 1901 Vasantrao instituted a suit against Ganpatrao's sons (Ganpatrao and Kashinath both being dead) to obtain a share in the ancestral property. Among thevarious grounds raised by the then defendants I need only refer to the contention that by the release Madhavrao forfeited not only his own interest in the ancestral property but that of his descendants. It was held, however, and the Privy Council confirmed the finding, that the release operated to extinguish only Madhavrao's own personal interest and did not bind his son, and that it must be treated as enuring, not as for the benefit of Kashinath alone, but for that of the whole co- parcenary. Vasantrao, therefore, as representing one of the two sons of Kashinath, was held entitled on partition to a half share of the property, Ganpatrao's children taking the other half.