Privy Council Court March 1939 Judgments

Lachhmeshwar Sahai Vs. Mt. Moti Rani Kunwar

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1939PC157

Sir George Rankin: Narbadeshwar Sahai, a Hindu governed by the Mitakshara, died on 28th August 1926. He had been married three times and had a son by each wife. His eldest son was Ram Nandan, his second son was Lachhmeshwar, the plaintiff-appellant: his third son Sumeshwar was born in 1924. The defendant-respondent Mt. Moti Rani Kunwar was his third wife and was the mother of Sumeshwar. The suit out of which this appeal arises was brought by Lachhmeshwar against his step-mother in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Bareilly on 22nd May 1931. It was a suit for the enforcement by sale of two mortgages dated 18th September 1926 and 20th September 1929. The deed of 18th September 1926 was executed by the respondent within a month of her husband's death. It was for Rupees 5000, of which only Rs. 545 was advanced at the time, the balance being set-off against four sums of Rs. 2565, Rs. 1292, Rs. 448 and Rs. 150. The last mentioned sum (Rs. 150) was not in fact advanced and no claim is mad...

Sardar Surendar Singh and Another Vs. Chaudhri Ghulam Mohammad

Court: Privy Council

Lord Romer: This is an appeal by the plaintiffs in the suit from a decree dated 7th October 1936, of the High Court of Judicature at Lahore, which set aside a decree dated 4th December 1935 of the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Sheikhupura. The plaintiffs who are the sons of Sardar Balwant Singh, deceased, a Sikh Jat, brought their suit to obtain possession of ancestral lands which had been mortgaged by their father in their lifetime by way of usufructuary mortgage in favour of the respondent (defendant) Chaudhri Ghulam Mohammad. They alleged in their plaint that according to the customary law of the agriculturists of the Punjab, which admittedly governs the transaction, their father was not competent to mortgage the ancestral lands without legal necessity and that there was no such necessity for the mortgage in the present case. They accordingly prayed for a decree that the mortgage was ineffectual to bind their reversionary rights in the land and for possession. The mortgage ...

Seth Biradh Mal and Others Vs. Sethani Prabhabhati Kunwar and Others

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1939PC152

Sir George Rankin: This pedigree table has reference to a family of the sub-caste "Lodha" at Ajmer. It is possessed of a trading and banking business carried on under the name of Kanwalnain Hamir Singh. The headquarters of the business are in Ajmer but it is carried on in some 16 different places throughout India under various names and in the case of three of the branch businesses it is said that a stranger to the family has an interest. A considerable amount of immovable property is owned by the family : it is not used in the business but the rents and profits are received by the business and are dealt with as income thereof. The business is said to have been established for over a hundred years. There is some dispute about the correct description of the family : they are said to be Oswal Jains but the appellants are concerned to maintain that though they are Oswals by caste they are not Jains and that they are governed by the Mitakshara. On 26th March 1923, Jeet Mal had died childle...

Jugal Kishore NaraIn Singh and Others Vs. Charoo Chandra Sur and Other ...

Court: Privy Council

Lord Porter: The question for determination in the present case is whether a lease of certain village in the district of Gaya in Bihar is binding on the respondents. The land involved had been the property of one Nebaran Chandra Biswas who died without issue leaving a widow Mt. Srimati Kiransasi Dasi who had a Hindu widow's estate in the property after his death. On her death the respondents who were the reversioners of the estate to her late husband were entitled to the property. The husband died in 1895. His widow was then about 24 years of age. On 7th April 1919, she executed a lease for 11 years of the village of Chokti Amarwan, Thana Nawaba, in favour of the predecessor of the appellants at a yearly rent of Rs. 3350 payable in five annual instalments. The lease provided that the tenant should deposit a sum of Rs. 3350 to be held by the lessor without interest and that this sum should be restored to the tenant by a deduction from the three last instalments payable in each of the tw...

Kunwar Surendra Bahadur Singh and Others Vs. Thakur Behari Singh and O ...

Court: Privy Council

Sir Lancelot Sanderson: This is an appeal by the plaintiffs in the suit against a judgment and decree of the High Court of Allahabad dated 28th November 1933, whereby the appeal of one of the present respondents, viz., Lachman Singh, was allowed and the suit as against the said Lachman Singh and his share of the mortgage property was dismissed. The plaintiffs are Kunwar Surendra Bahadur Singh and his two minor sons and the suit was brought for foreclosure of a mortgage dated 23rd June 1909, purporting to be executed by Himmat Singh (now deceased), Mulu Singh and Mt. Jamna Kunwar, mother and certified guardian of the said Lachman Singh, who was then a minor, in favour of Surendra Bahadur Singh in respect of certain zemindari property to secure a loan of Rs. 18,000 and 4 per cent. interest in order to pay off prior mortgages at a higher rate of interest. The defendant-respondents 1-9 are heirs of Himmat Singh, No. 10 is Lachman Singh, Nos. 11, 12 and 13 are Mulu Singh and his two sons an...

Bhaya Mohammad Asim Khan and Others Raja Saadat Ali Khan and Others

Court: Privy Council

Sir George Rankin: This appeal is brought from two decrees of 22nd December 1930, made in the exercise of the original jurisdiction conferred upon the Chief Court of Oudh by Sec. 7, Oudh Courts Act, 1925, an Act of the Local Legislature of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. By these decrees Nanavutty J. as trial Judge, after a protracted hearing, dismissed two suits (numbered respectively 11 and 12 of 1928), which had been instituted on 2nd November 1928. The two suits were tried together and one judgment was given covering the issues in both. They came on for hearing on 15th July 1929. Evidence both oral and documentary was adduced in great quantity: the hearing continued until 2nd August 1929, when the case was postponed until 13th February 1930: thereafter the case was heard on a number of dates in February, March and April of that year. Sixteen issues in one case and fourteen in the other had been framed and in a lengthy judgment the learned Judge considered and decided a numbe...

Nitya Nand and Others Vs. Lala Karam Chand

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1939PC128

Lord Romer: These consolidated appeals owe their origin to certain partition proceedings in the Court of the District Judge, Peshawar, which were begun as long ago as 17th August 1926, and do not appear to have yet reached a conclusion. Among the plaintiffs in that suit were the present appellants (6) and (7), Lal Chand and Sant Ram, who were the sons of a predeceased son of one Lorinda Mall who had died in 1901. The defendants to the suit included the respondent Karam Chand and Parma Nand (since deceased), the only other sons of Lorinda Mall. The appellants 1 to 5 now represent the interest of Parma Nand. It was alleged by the plaintiffs, Lal Chand and Sant Ram, in their plaint, that Lorinda Mall and his sons and grandsons formed a Hindu joint family governed by the Mitakshara law and they sought partition of all the moveable and immovable properties belonging to the joint family and mentioned in the plaint, and for possession of the one-third share to which on this footing they were ...

Mt.Bhagwati Vs. Mt. Ram Kali

Court: Privy Council

Lord Porter: The plaintiff and the defendant in this appeal are the widows of two brothers, the appellant of Sagar Mal and the respondent of Kirpa Ram. The brothers were the sons of Janki Kuar, who died in 1918 and the title under which the property was held by the brothers is in dispute. Kirpa Ram died on 10th March 1924, leaving the respondent as his widow. Sagar Mal died on 18th March 1924, leaving the appellant as his widow. If the property which prior to their death was admittedly enjoyed by both the brothers was held as joint family property, the appellant as widow of the last survivor would be entitled to the estate. If on the other hand as was claimed by the respondent, the property was held by the brothers as tenants in common it would pass to the two widows in equal shares. The appellant asserted that the property was joint family property and by Hindu law the whole passed to her. The respondent on her part maintained that the property was held by the brothers as tenants in c...

Mahanth Singh Vs. U Ba Yi

Court: Privy Council

Lord Porter: The facts in this case can be shortly stated. The plaintiff who is a building contractor was employed by the four trustees of a pagoda known as the Kyaikasan Pagoda. The terms of the employment are set out in a written agreement dated 1st January 1933, and expressed to be made between the Board of the Kyaikasan Pagoda Trustees and the appellant. It is signed by the appellant and each of the trustees. The respondent was trustee of the estate of a lady called Daw Dwe who had left certain property for charitable purposes. He was not a party to the contract but had orally guaranteed its due performance by the trustees, and in Burma such a guarantee is binding though it is not in writing. The appellant fulfilled his contract and there was due to him a sum of Rs. 26,082-8-6, less, as the learned trial Judge found, a sum of Rs. 158, which had not been paid. The appellant thereupon instituted the present action on 21st May 1934, in the High Court in its original jurisdiction, clai...