MT AMIR BI Vs. ABDUL RAHIM SAHIB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A preliminary issue has been raised: Has the Court jurisdiction to try the suit?

(2.) This involves a consideration of three points: (1) Is this an administration suit? (2) Is an administration suit a suit for land? (3) If it is held that it is not, can the Court, in such a suit, where the land is wholly outside jurisdiction, decide questions of title to such land?

(3.) I shall first deal with the question : "Is this an administration suit?" Abdul Razaak Saheb, a Mahomedan, who was trading in Madras, died in 1920, leaving large assets consisting of moveables within the city and a few items of immoveable property wholly outside "this Court's jurisdiction. In this suit, which his widow has brought, she asks that the extent of Abdul Razaak's property may be ascertained, that his outstandings may be realised, that his estate may be administered, that her mahar may be paid and that the residue divisible among his heirs may be divided according to their shares under the law. These are, in short, the reliefs claimed in the plaint. Her children, as the heirs of their deceased father, have been impleaded as defendants 3 to 6. The plaintiff's case is, that the children of Abdul Razaak by his first wife, who predeceased him, released, during his lifetime, their right to the estate and that they and their heirs are not therefore entitled to any share of the property left by him. The 7th defendant is Abdul Razaak's son by his deceased first wife. At his death, Abdul Razaak left also a daughter by that wife, who died subsequently leaving defendants 8 to 17 as her heirs. Defendants 7 to 17 do not admit the plaintiff's allegation that they are not entitled to a share in the estate.