GIRIDHARI BISWAL Vs. GOLAK BISWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the plaintiff's second appeal against the concurrent decisions of the Munsif of Jaipur and the Additional Subordinate Judge of Cuttack dismissing his suit for declaration of title and recovery of possession of certain property on the ground that he is the adopted son of one Bira Biswal.

(2.) Defendant 1 is admittedly the natural born son of Bira Biswal. The plaintiff alleged that defendant 1 was given in adoption to Bira's own brother Nilamani about ?0 years ago. Subsequently two other natural born sons of Bira died and then it was alleged that about 25 years ago Bira adopted the plaintiff as his son. It was further alleged that the plaintiff and defendant 1 remained joint till about 1913 when there was a partition of the joint family property. The suit was necessitated by the action of defendant 1 in mortgaging one item of the joint family property in favour of defendant 2. Defendant 1's main contention was that neither was he given in adoption to Nilamani nor was the plaintiff adopted by Bira. He being the sole survivor of the joint family of Bira and his brother Nilamani became entitled to all that property.

(3.) Thus it will be seen that the main question for decision in this litigation was whether the plaintiff was the adopted son of Bira and for the purpose of this decision, the question as to whether defendant 1 (who is admittedly the natural born son of Bira) was given in adoption to Nilamani was also very material. Both the Courts disbelieved the evidence about the two adoptions given by the plaintiff's witnesses and, therefore, dismissed the suit.