Case: Fateh Bibi Etc Vs. Charan Dass

2. The following pedigree will be useful in appreciating the relationship of the parties as well as the basis of the claim made regarding the title to the properties by the parties3. The respondent-plaintiff instituted Suit No. 41 of 1955 in the Subordinate Judges Court, Jagraon, against the original defendant for recovery of possession of the suit properties. According to the plaintiff, Kirpa Ram was the last owner of the properties. Even during his lifetime his only son Charanji Lal had died. On the death of Kirpa Ram, his widow Bishan Devi became the owner of the properties and was in possession of the properties for her lifetime. After the death of Bishan Devi, her daughter Maya Devi (daughter of Kirpa Ram and Bishan Devi) became her heir and remained in possession of the property till her death. After Maya Devis death, according to Dharma Shastras the plaintiff, as the daughters son of Kirpa Ram, was entitled to succeed to the properties which were in the possession of Bishan Devi and later on of Maya Devi, his mother. It was alleged by the plaintiff that the defendant, after the death of Bishan Devi claiming to be entitled to the properties of Kirpa Ram, got mutation in the Revenue Registers effected in his name on or about January 6, 1947. Therefore, according to the plaintiff, the defendant had no right, title or interest to the properties of Kirpa Ram and the mutation obtained by him could not affect the rights of the plaintiff as the daughters son of Kirpa Ram. On these allegations the plaintiff prayed for a declaration regarding his title to the property and for recovery of possession of the same from the defendant4. The defendant contested the claim of the plaintiff on various grounds. He alleged that Charanji Lal did not predecease Kirpa Ram but, on the other hand, after the death of Kirpa Ram, Charanji Lal, his son, became heir and was in possession of the properties left by his father. Charanji Lal died long afterwards, in or about 1926 and, after his death, his mother Bishan Devi became heir to the property left by Charanji Lal, for her lifetime. After the death of Bishan Devi the defendant claimed that he, as a collateral of Kirpa Ram, became entitled to the properties of the latter and, as such, got mutation effected in his favour, according to law. He further averred that Maya Devi did not at all come into possession of the estate after the death of Bishan Devi. In fact the defendant even disputed the fact that Maya Devi was the daughter of Bishan Devi. Even if Maya Devi was the daughter of Bishan Devi, the defendant alleged that according to the custom governing the parties, Maya Devi had no right to the properties left by Bishan Devi. On these allegations, the defendant maintained that he was rightly entitled to the properties of Kirpa Ram and that the plaintiff has no cause of action for having the mutation effected in the Revenue Registers in his favour cancelled5. The Trial Court, by its judgment and decree dated February 22, 1956 decreed the plaintiffs claim. It found that Maya Devi was the daughter of Kirpa Ram and Bishan Devi and that the plaintiff was the son of Maya Devi. The Trial Court further found that Charanji Lal did not pre-decease his father Kirpa Ram but, on the other hand, after the death of Kirpa Ram, Charanji Lal was the last male holder of the entire property and was in possession, as such, till his death. It was also further found that the parties were governed by their personal law and not by custom in matters of succession. It has been found that Charanji Lal died issueless on August 22, 1925 and, after his death, his mother Bishan Devi was in possession of the property as a life-estate holder. After her death on November 26, 1946 Maya Devi was in possession of the property, again as a life-estate holder, till her death on March 25, 1950. Though no claim was made by the plaintiff to succeed to Charanji Lal as his sisters son, and though his claim was to succeed to the property of Kirpa Ram as the latters daughters son, the Trial Court held that on the finding that Charanji Lal was the last male holder, the claim of the plaintiff had really to be decided on the basis of the Act under which the plaintiff, as the sisters son of Charanji Lal, has got a preferential claim. The contention of the defendant that the Act did not apply inasmuch as Charanji Lal had died long before the date when the Act came into force (February 21, 1929), was not accepted and the Court took the view that succession opened in favour of the plaintiff only after the death of Maya Devi in 1950. In this view the trial Court held that the plaintiff, being the sisters son of the last male holder (Charanji Lal) was to be preferred to the defendant who was only a paternal uncle of Charanji Lal and as such, decreed the suit6. The defendant carried the matter in appeal before the learned District Judge, Ludhiana, in C. A. No. 53 of 1956. The learned Judge, in his judgment dated March 14, 1957, has stated that the defendant only attacked the finding of the trial Court that the plaintiff was the daughters son of Kirpa Ram and the findings on the other issues were not challenged. The learned Judge, on this point, agreed with the finding of the trial Court that Maya Devi was the daughter of Kirpa Ram and Bishan Devi and that the plaintiff was the son of Maya Devi. The decree of the trial Court was confirmed7. The defendant again challenged the decrees of both the Subordinate Courts before the Punjab High Court in Regular Second Appeal No. 359 of 1957.Before the learned Single Judge the appellant raised two contentions: (1) That the plaintiff never set up any claim as a preferential heir under the Act being the sisters son of the last male holder and, as such, his title should not have been recognised by the Subordinate Courts; and (2) In any event, the Act does not apply inasmuch as the last male holder Charanji Lal died as early as August 22, 1925, long before the coming into force of the Act on February 21, 19298. The learned Judge, after a reference to the pleadings, held that the first contention was well founded as the plaintiff clamed title to the properties only as the daughters son of Kirpa Ram and had even alleged that Charanji Lal had predeceased his father and no claim as the sisters son of Charanji Lal was ever made. But, in view of the findings recorded by the two Subordinate Courts that the plaintiff was the sisters son of Charanji Lal who had also been held to be the last male holder, the learned Single Judge held that the applicability of the Act did arise for consideration9. The learned Judge agreed with the findings of the two Courts that Charanji Lal was the last male holder of the properties in question and that he was the absolute owner of the those properties and there was no question of the property in his hands being coparcenary property. But, regarding the applicability of the Act, the learned Judge held that as Charanji Lal died on August 22, 1925, the succession to his estate must be considered to have opened on the date of his death and, as the Act came into force only on February 21, 1929 the heirs of Charanji Lal must be found on the date the succession opened, viz., August 22, 1925; and the heir to Charanji Lal on that date was his paternal uncle, the defendant. According to the learned Judge the fact that the life estate of the mother and sister of Charanji Lal intervened after his death, will not affect the rights of the defendant as the Act has no retrospective operation. For this view, the learned Judge relied on two earlier decisions, one of the Madras High Court in Kirshnan Chettiar v. Manikammal, ILR 57 Mad 718   = (AIR 1934 Mad 138  ) and the other of the Allahabad High Court in Kanhaiya Lal v. Mt. Champa Devi, AIR 1935 All 203   holding that the Act applied only to the case of a Hindu male dying intestate on or after February 21, 1929. In this view the learned Judge, by his judgment dated November 18, 1958 held that the rightful heir to the estate of Charanji Lal was the defendant and reversed the decrees of the two Subordinate Courts and dismissed the plaintiffs suit which costs throughout10. The plaintiff-respondent carried the matter is Letters Patent Appeal No. 42 of 1959 before a Division Bench of the Punjab High Court. The Division Bench noticed that the decisions relied on by the learned Single Judge had been overruled by Full Bench decisions of the same Courts in Lakshmi v. Anantharama, ILR (1937) Mad 948 = (AIR 1937 Mad 699  ) (FB) and Rajpali Kunwar v. Sarju Rai, ILR 58 All 1041 = (AIR 1936 All 507  ) (FB) where it had been held that under the Hindu Law it is the death of the female heir that opens inheritance to the reversioners who, till then possess only an inchoate right, generally termed a spes successionis. It has been further held that the Act will apply even to cases where the last male-holder dies intestate before the passing of the Act and the limited female heir is alive after the coming into force of the Act, as the succession to the deceased male member must be considered to open only after the passing of the Act and will be governed by the provisions of the Act. Following these decisions, the Division Bench reversed the judgment of the learned Single Judge and decreed the plaintiffs suit for possession holding that under the Act the plaintiff, being the sisters son of the last male holder Charanji Lal, was the preferential heir.

Court's reasoning:
13. We are of the opinion that the decision of the Letters Patent Bench is correct. No doubt, originally the view taken by some of the High Courts was that the Act applies only if the last male holder dies after the coming into force of the Act and it will have no retrospective application to cases of Hindu males dying intestate before the date of the Act. That view has now been given the go-by as is seen from the later decisions to which we shall refer presently. But before we refer to those decisions, we shall quote the observations of this Court in Annagouda Nathgouda Patil v. Court of Wards, 1952 SCR 208     at p. 215 = (AIR 1952 SC 60   at pp. 63-64) regarding the object and scope of the ActWe are in entire agreement with the above observations of the Judicial Committee and accordingly hold that the point of time for the applicability of the Act is when the succession opens, viz., when the life estate terminates. In consequence, it must be further held that the questions as to who is the nearest reversionary heir, or what is the class of reversionary heirs will fall to be settled at the date of the expiry of the ownership for life or lives. The death of a Hindu female life-estate holder opens the inheritance to the reversioners and the one most nearly related at the time to the last full owner becomes entitled to the estate18.We hold that the Act applies also to the case of a Hindu male dying intestate before the Act came into operation and has been succeeded by a female heir who died after that date. In this case, on the findings recorded by all the Courts, the last female heir died only on March 25, 1950 and, under the Act, the plaintiff, as the sisters son of Charanji Lal, is entitled to succeed to his estate, in preference to the defendant who is only a paternal uncle. We have already pointed out that the paternal uncle is postponed to the four relations referred to in the Act, the last of whom is the sisters son19. Before we conclude, we may state that in this case the succession can be considered to have opened even on November 26, 1946 when Bishen Devis (the mothers) life estate terminated and it must be held that even Maya Devi, the sister of Charanji Lal, must be considered to have succeeded to the property of her brother, in her own right as a preferential heir under the Act, though the estate, taken by her under Section 3 (b) will only be a life-estate. No doubt these aspects have not been raised before any of the Courts, nor even before us.