CHABILDAS LALLUBHAI Vs. RAMDAS CHABILDAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a suit for a declaration that the properties therein referred to or so many of them as are within this Court's jurisdiction, are the self-acquired properties of the plaintiff. Perhaps the most convenient way of disposing of it -will be to follow the main lines of the written argument put in for the plaintiff by his learned Counsel Mr. Inverarity. That I suppose is the best case which, upon the most deliberate and full consideration, plaintiff's counsel could make out for him : and while, as the sequal will show, it is not the best case the plaintiff has, its method brings out the chief points and contentions of both sides.

(2.) The plaintiff's case is different against different defendants. It has to be considered (1) against the after-born children of the plaintiff's second wife; (2) against Ramdas and Karsondas (the latter now deceased) and their childern, some of whom were and some of whom were not born at the date of the release in 1889. There is also a separate case in respect of the ornaments, in which Bhanumati is interested, as well as the male issue.

(3.) The plaintiff in the opening of his agrument contends that while his property may be self-acquired as against Ramdas and Karsondas it may be ancestral in his hands as between himself and the after-born children of his second wife. This I think is an incorrect view of the Hindu law. If the property was really self-acquired it retains that character in the plaintiff's hands, even against the childern of his second wife, unless and until he has intentionally given it the character of joint family (not ancestral) between himself and them. But there is no contention in this suit that the plaintiff has done anything of the kind. The character of the property is in issue in the same way and to the same extent (subject of course to the legal consequences of the release) between Chabildas and all his male issue. Thus while if the whole property is held to be ancestral, the rights of the various defendants might now be widely different: if it is held to be self-acquired. That finding disposes of the case against them all.