Case: Babulal Khandelwal  Vs. Balkishan D. Singhvi

During the pendency of the suit, the Respondent No.1/Plaintiff filed Chamber Summons No.1270 of 2005 for impleading the Appellants herein as parties to the suit and to challenge the alienation of two properties, one to Prolific Consultancy Services (Mumbai) Pvt. Ltd. and the other to the Appellants herein. By judgment and order dated 13th February, 2006, the learned Single Judge of the Bombay High Court allowed the Chamber Summons and permitted the plaint to be amended as a result whereof the appellants herein stood impleaded as defendants Nos.7 to 12 in the suit on the ground that they were necessary parties to the suit, despite their objection that the Respondent No.8 is a company in which the Appellants were only share-holders and that they were in no way related to any of the parties to theamendment of the plaint, also had the effect of allowing the Respondent No.1 to challenge the transactions concluded by Dwarkadas Sanghvi and Vimlaben Sanghvi and the Appellants herein, before their death.

Court's reasoning:
The circumstances in an administration suit where a person dies intestate are, however, different. The learned Single Judge of the High Court has correctly indicated that in an administration suit, the dispute between the parties relating to the title of the deceased in respect of his properties, can be gone into in an administration suit and that there is no bar to a Court determining the validity of transactions allegedly entered into by or on behalf of the deceased, whose Estate is to be administered. In Appendix "D" to the Code of Civil Procedure which deals with the forms of decrees in different suits, Form 17 indicates the form in which preliminary decrees in Administration Suits are to be passed. Paragraph 3 of the Form deals with suits filed by the next of kin of the deceased who dies intestate, as in the instant case, and provides for an inquiry to be made and account taken of what or of what share, if any, the plaintiff is entitled to as next-of-kin in the moveable properties of the Estate. However, if the moveable properties of the deceased are found to be insufficient for carrying out the objects of the suit, then by virtue of paragraph 10 of the Form the Court may order an inquiry as to what immovable property the deceased was seized of or entitled to at the time of his death and what encumbrances, if any, affect the immovable property of the deceased or any part thereof. The said inquiry, in our view might also include the transactions with the appellants herein which had purportedly been concluded by the owners of the properties themselves during their life time, in order to ascertain whether the said properties continued to form part of the Estate of the deceased at the time of theirtherefore, have little hesitation in holding that the High Court had not committed any error in allowing the amendments to the plaint which had the effect of impleading the appellants as parties to the administration suit filed by the respondent No.1 and permitting the respondent No.1 to question the transactions entered into by the owners of the Estate with third parties. The order of the High Court does not warrant any interference and the appeal must, therefore, be dismissed.