PRATAPSINGH SHIVSINGH Vs. THAKOR SHRI AGARSINGJI RAJASANGJI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an action in ejectment brought by the Thakor of Gamph in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of the Ahmedabad District for possession of a village called Piparia. His suit is based on the ground that the village in question forms part of the estate of Gamph, that many years ago it was granted for maintenance or jivai by one of his ancestors to a junior member of the family to be held and enjoyed so long as the grantee s male line lasted, and that on the death of the last holder named Kaliansing in 1903 without male issue, it reverted to him as the owner of the original estate under the custom attached to such fivai grants.

(2.) The action was brought on the 15th July, 1907, against Bai Devla, the widow of Kaliansing, who was admittedly in possession of the village claiming to hold the same for her minor adopted son, who was also joined as defendant No. 2, whom she alleged she had taken in adoption shortly after the death of her husband. Devla has since died, and the adopted son is the present appellant before this Board. The third defendant is a mortgagee claiming tinder a bond executed by Kaliansing.

(3.) Both the plaintiff and the defendant Shivsing are Chudasama Girasias, a caste of Hindu Rajpoots who, it is said, settled several generations ago in the Dhanduka Taluka appertaining to the Ahmedabad District. The Thakor of Gamph appears to have been one of their principal chiefs, and possessed at one time a considerable number of villages which, by successive grants to junior members of the family, have dwindled now to eight or nine, and the Thakor is naturally anxious to get back as many of these grants as possible.