LAWS(PVC)-1918-3-53

BHARMA SHIDAPPA BHORE Vs. BALARAM SAKHARAM GUJAR

Decided On March 22, 1918
BHARMA SHIDAPPA BHORE Appellant
V/S
BALARAM SAKHARAM GUJAR Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN my opinion the Courts below were right in holding this suit barred. The plaintiff s adoption was challenged in 1901 and his rights were clearly interfered with as a result of that litigation. That is plain from the frame of the present suit in which he seeks to have it declared that he is not bound by the decrees in the former suit. It is, therefore, in my opinion, clearly a case within the principle of Jagadamba s case (Jagadamba Choudhrari v. Dakhina Mohun (1886) L.R. 13 I.A. 84. That case was made the foundation of a Full Bench decision of this Court in Shrinivas v. Hanmant (1899) I.L.R. 24 Bom. 260, F.B. and although there have been two later decisions of the Privy Council in the cases of Thakur Tirbhuwan Bahadur Singh v. Raja Bameshar Bakhsh Singh (1900) L.R. 33 I.A. 156 : 8 Bom. L.R. 722 and Umar Khan v. Niaz-ud-din Khan (1011) L.R. 39 I.A. 19 : 14 Bom. L.R. 182 which may appear to conflict with the principle of Jagadamba s case, it was pointed out by a Bench of this Court in the case of Shrinivas Sarjerav v. Balwant Venkatesh (1913) I.L.R. 37 Bom. 513 : 15 Bom. L.R. 533., that those decisions left the authority of Shrinivas v. Hanmant, as far as this Court is concerned, quite unshaken. I entirely concur with that view. Having carefully considered those decisions of the Privy Council, it is clear that neither of them professes to overrule Jagadamba s case, although without any reference to it there is one sentence in the later Privy Council case which appears to conflict with it. However that may be, we are bound by the authority of our own High Court. Under that authority the plaintiff was bound to bring his suit within six years to establish his adoption. He failed to do so ; and, inasmuch as he admittedly cannot succeed in this litigation without establishing the validity of his adoption, it follows that his present suit is out of time and ought to have been dismissed, as it was dismissed by the lower Courts with all costs upon the plaintiff. I think this appeal must likewise be dismissed with all costs upon the plaintiff. Heaton, J.

(2.) I concur.