Privy Council Court May 1938 Judgments

Rai Bajrang Bahadur Singh and Another Vs. Rai Beni Madho Bakhsh Singh ...

Court: Privy Council

Sir George Rankin: The question for determination in this case relates to partition proceedings which from 3rd October 1903 to 1st July 1907 took place under the United Provinces Land Revenue Act (U. P. Act 3 of 1901) in respect of a village called Nain situate in pargana Salon in the district of Rai Bareli in Oudh. The question has been described by the Chief Court of Oudh as of importance and judicial opinion in the United Provinces has for many years been divided upon the principle to be applied. The suit out of which the present appeal arises was brought in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Rai Bareli by the two appellants together with two other persons on 20th February 1930 against 68 persons interested in the lands of the village : defendant 69 being joined pro forma as a person having the same interest as the plaintiffs. The relief claimed by the plaint was a declaration that the plaintiffs and defendant 69 were superior proprietors as distinct from under proprietors of var...

Sardar Mohammad Nawaz Khan Vs. Bhagata Nand (Gurdwara Committee Panja ...

Court: Privy Council

Sir George Rankin: The appellant, Sardar Mohammad Nawaz Khan, a Muslim, is the principal proprietor of village Kot Fateh Khan in the district of Attock in the Punjab. According to the wajib-ul-arz prepared at the time of the settlement of 1904 the appellant as proprietor is entitled to realize a tax or case called haq buha (door-tax). So far as material the entry is as follows : Haq buha is realized annually from the kamins or non-proprietors living inside the abadi of our village at a rate ranging from Rs.1 to Rs. 2 ... Haq buha is taken by Sardar Mohammad Nawaz Khan only. The original dispute in the present case was whether the appellant was entitled to claim this tax from one Parkasha Nand who was the head or mahant of an old shrine called Deri Baba Than Singh situate in the village, and who has died pending the litigation. The claim is not made against the shrine as an institution or against any mahant by reason of his office, but is a claim preferred against the individual as bein...

Attorney-general for the Isle of Man Vs. Emily Moore

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1938PC238

Lord Wright: This is an appeal from the High Court of the Isle of Man by His Majesty's Attorney-General for the Island, It raises an important question on the construction of the Act of Tynwald, known as the Act of Settlement of 1703-04. The appellant claims on behalf of His Majesty, who is Lord of the Isle and Manor of Man under a title, the history of which was expounded by this Board in (1879) 4 AC 294,1 What was there said need not be repeated here. Nor is there any dispute as to the position of the respondent so far as relevant to these proceedings. She is the holder of the Raggatt estate, which is a Manx customary estate of inheritance held by her from the Lord of the Island. Such estates, the nature of which was also fully discussed by this Board in (1879) 4 AC 294,1 had been originally estates of a low kind of tenure which by custom and judicial decision had grown into customary estates in fee simple, subject to the discharge of certain payments to the Lord of the Isle. But as ...

Mahant Satnam Singh Vs. Bawan Bhagwan Singh

Court: Privy Council

Lord Thankerton: The appellant seeks reversal of both the judgment and decree of the Court of the First Additional Subordinate Judge at Benares dated 3rd July 1931, and the judgment and decree of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad dated 18th September 1934, which affirmed it. The appeal was heard ex parte as the respondent did not appear.The dispute relates to the office of Mahant of the Chaitanya Math, founded in Benares according to the rules and practice of Sadhus of a Sikh community known as the Nanakshahi Nirmali Sampradaya, according to the custom and usage of the Math. For the purposes of this appeal, the facts are much clarified by concurrent findings by the Courts below, and the matters in dispute are narrowed so that the main point left in dispute is whether the respondent, who is plaintiff in the suit, was validly installed as Mahant on 13th April 1928. The last Mahant, Ratan Singh, died on 23rd June 1928, leaving a will dated 5th June 1928, under which he nominated t...

Carson and Co. Ltd., Vs. Dorothy Margaret Catherine Hulme King

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1938PC225

Lord Thankerton: The present suit was instituted by the appellant for recovery of a sum of Rs. 60,730/57 and interest as due under mortgage bond No. 189 dated 23rd July 1930, executed by the respondent in favour of the appellant. By decree dated 25th June 1935, the District Court of Colombo entered decree awarding the appellant the said sum and interest. On appeal, this decree was amended by the decree of the Supreme Court of Ceylon dated 5th February 1937, so as to award the sum of Rs.10,504/79 with interest to the appellant, who now appeals against their decision, and asks that the decree of the District Court should be restored. It is agreed that the difference between the sums awarded respectively by the District Court and the Supreme Court is represented by a sum of Rs. 43,278/52, which the appellant claims to be recoverable under the mortgage bond, and which the respondent denies to be so recoverable. The determination of the dispute depends partly on the proper construction of t...

Mauna Po Hla and Another Vs. Ma Ngwe Sint and Others

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1938PC223

Sir George Rankin: In this case two appeals from the High Court at Rangoon have been consolidated. They arise out of two mortgage suits brought by the appellants in the District Court of Pyapon. In each suit there were three defendants- two of whom were impleaded in both suits. In Appeal No. 47, the mortgage sued upon was a sub-mortgage of some 125 acres of paddy land in Pyapon township to secure a loan of Rs.7000 with interest at 18 per cent. per annum. In Appeal No. 74 the mortgage sued upon was of four pieces of paddy land in the same township to secure a loan of Rs. 13,000 with interest at 16 per cent. per annum. These mortgages were effected by registered deeds both dated 23rd September 1924. The appellants' suit to enforce the sub-mortgage was brought on 19th June 1933, and their suit upon the other mortgage on 23rd January 1934. The suits came on for hearing in October 1934 and October 1935, respectively, before different Judges in the same District Court and in each case the pl...

Rowland Ady and Others Vs. Administrator General of Burma, Administrat ...

Court: Privy Council

Lord Wright: The question in this appeal relates to a promissory note executed by the appellants dated 12th September 1933. This note was a renewal of an earlier promissory note executed in 1930, but as it is common ground that the considerations which would have applied to the original note, applied to the renewal, no distinction need be drawn between the two documents. The question to be determined is, what were the conditions on which the earlier promissory note was executed. The appeal is by Rowland Ady, who will be referred to as the appellant, Rowland Ady and Co. being merely the firm name under which he carries on business so that it may be disregarded in this appeal. The respondent, the Administrator General of Burma, is the administrator of the estate of one Hosain Hamadanee, deceased. In 1927 the appellant, Hamadanee and one James Cyril Ashe, who was a mining engineer, formed a syndicate to operate certain mining rights, here referred to as Booth's Grant, for the purpose of d...

Pandit Parma Nand Vs. Nihal Chand and Another

Court: Privy Council

Sir Shadi Lal: In the town of Gujranwala, there is a building variously described as Baghichi Thakaran or Gurdwara Baghichi, and the main issue, which their Lordships have to determine in this appeal, is whether that building, together with the shops and other property attached to it, is the subject-matter of a trust for a public purpose of a charitable or religious nature. The issue was raised by the defendants who, claiming to be the representatives of the Hindu public, made an application to the District Judge under S. 3, Charitable and Religious Trusts Act (No. 14 of 1920) alleging that the Baghichi Thakaran was a public endowment for religious and charitable purposes, and called upon Mahant Narain Das, who was described by them as the trustee of the endowment, to furnish details of the nature and purposes of the trust, and of the value of the property belonging to the trust, and also to render an account of the income and expenditure of the trust property. Their allegations were c...

SaIn Maule Shah Vs. Ghane Shah and Others

Court: Privy Council

Sir Shadi Lal: The question raised by this appeal relates to the appointment of a sajjadanashin of a Moslem shrine situate at Ludhiana in the Province of the Punjab. The shrine is known as takia Shah Shuhada, and belongs to a sept of ascetics called Madari fakirs. The sajjadanashin of the shrine was one Sain Jhandu Shah, who died on 25th October 1922. The matter in controversy between the parties is whether the appellant Maule Shah was validly appointed to succeed Sain Jhandu Shah in the office of the sajjadanashin of this institution. A takia is a place where a fakir or dervish (a person who abjures the world and becomes an humble servitor of God) resides before his pious life and teachings attract public notice, and before disciples gather round him, and a place is constructed for their lodgement: 20 Cal 810 (1) at p. 822. A takia is recognized by law as a religious institution, and a grant or endowment to it is a valid wakf or public trust for a religious purpose. The sajjadanashin ...

Malik Harkishan Singh Vs. Malik Partap Singh and Others

Court: Privy Council

Sir Shadi Lal: Hira Singh, the father of the plaintiff-respondent Partab Singh, resided originally in Dera Khalsa, a village situated in the Rawalpindi District. He admittedly constituted a joint Hindu family with his two sons, Narain Singh and Partap Singh. The family owned ancestral property consisting of a house and agricultural land. In 1872, when Narain Singh was about eight years old and Partap Singh about six years, Hira Singh migrated with his sons from his ancestral village to Abbottabad. He acquired some property at Abbottabad and also carried on business there. Partap Singh was educated by his father, first at Abbottabad, and then at Lahore. He completed his education in 1888, when he went with the Black Mountain Expeditionary Force as a contractor for supplying articles of food and other necessaries to the troops. He earned money in his business of contract, and on his return to Abbottabad, he handed it over to his father. He subsequently went to Rawalpindi and supervised t...