Privy Council Court December 1937 Judgments

Mahant Har Kishen Das Vs. Satgur Prasad

Court: Privy Council

Sir George Rankin: This consolidated appeal arises out of execution proceedings in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Bahraich to enforce a certain provision in a decree made on 28th November 1927, by a Judge of the Chief Court of Oudh in its original jurisdiction. This decree had been modified as a result of appeals to that Court in its appellate jurisdiction and to His Majesty in Council. The decree of the Appellate Bench is dated 2nd May 1928, and the judgment of the Board was delivered on 18th January 1932 [59 IA 147 (1) ]. The suit in which the decree was passed was brought on 21st February 1927, by Mahant Har Narain Das (in this judgment referred to as Narain Das) against the present respondent, whom their Lordships will refer to as Satgur Prasad, and two other persons. The plaintiff's case in outline was as follows : For many years there had existed in the City of Lucknow a sangat or Udasi shrine to the mahant of which valuable taluqdari property and certain other property mo...

C. Sabhapathi Vs. G. Huntley

Court: Privy Council

Lord Alness: This is an appeal from a judgment and decree of the Supreme Court of the Island of Ceylon, dated 9th March 1936, which set aside a judgment and decree of the District Court of Avisawella dated 1st September 1934. These judgments and decrees were pronounced in an action for defamation, in which the appellant was plaintiff, and the respondent was defendant. The District Court awarded the plaintiff a sum of Rs. 10.000 as damages while the Supreme Court dismissed the plaintiff's action. The circumstances under which the present suit was brought excluding controversial matter are as follows : The plaintiff is a Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery of the University of Madras, a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London and a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. He was at all times material to this action employed as the Government District Medical Officer in charge of the Government Hospital at Karawanella and had been in the service of the Govern...

Mt. Anurago Kuer Vs. Darshan Raut and Others

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1938PC65

Sir Shadi Lal: On 23rd August 1915, three persons, namely Mahesh, his son Rijhawan, and his nephew Inderdeo, granted a muquarrari (permanent lease at a fixed rent) of a plot of land measuring about 40 bighas, situated in Telhara in the district of Motihari, to one Ganesh Raut. The plaintiff, Mt. Anurago Kuer, who is the widow of one Sitaram, a brother of Mahesh's father, Kesheo, laid claim to a moiety of the land on the ground that it belonged to her husband, and that on his death it devolved upon her and her co-widow Rajo Kuer. The latter widow died in 1923, with the result that the plaintiff became the sole owner of her husband's estate. On 22nd August 1927, a day before the expiry of the prescribed period of limitation, she brought the present suit for the recovery of her husband's share of the land against the lessee, who died during the pendency of the suit and is now represented by his successors-in interest. The lessors also were impleaded as defendants, but they have not defend...

Lala Atma Ram Vs. Thakur Sadhu Singh and Another

Court: Privy Council

Sir Shadi Lal: On 12th May 1931, two brothers, Agar Singh and Nandlal Singh, who were proprietors of a one third share in the village Bajika, situated in Tahsil Sirsa of the Hissar district, entered into an agreement with the appellant, Rai Sahib Lala Atmaram, to sell the whole of their estate in that village to him for Rs. 52,000. In the deed of agreement they set out the reasons for selling the land in these terms : We are unable to manage the cultivation work of the estate. Besides we owe debts, interest whereupon is swelling day by day. The revenue of the estate is also due from us. There is no other alternative but to sell the estate for payment of the debts and the revenue. As they were members of an agricultural tribe notified under a special statute called the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 13 of 1900, and the proposed vendee, Rai Sahib Lala Atma Ram, was not a member of an agricultural tribe, they could not sell the land to him without obtaining the sanction of the Deputy Com...

Syed Altaf HussaIn and Others Vs. Diwan Syed Ali Rasul Ali Khan and Ot ...

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1938PC71

Sir Shadi Lal: The dispute in this case relates to the distribution of the offerings made by the pilgrims to the tomb of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer. The tomb in question, generally known as Durgah Khwaja Sahib, Ajmer, has for centuries past been a place of pilgrimage for devout Moslems; and the presents made by the pilgrims to the Durgah have led to frequent disputes between the Sajjada Nashin (called Diwan Sahib) on the one side, and the Khadims (servitors) on the other side. The Sajjada Nashin is a descendant of the Saint, while the Khadims are the descendants of the original disciples of the Saint. In September 1912, Diwan Sharfuddin, the predecessor of the present Sajjada Nashin, granted to the Khadims a perpetual lease of the Sajjada Nashin's share of the offerings made at the Shrine for Rs. 500 a year. For about ten years there was no controversy between the Sajjada Nashin and the Khadims about the division of the offerings. In 1922 Diwan Sharfuddin died and was succeeded b...