After the partition of India the appeal was transferred to the High Court of East Punjab.
A.I.R. 1940 Lah.
2 of village Kingarian was ancestral while the rest of the lands in suit were number ancestral, and that there was a custom according to which daughter was excluded from inheritance by the companylaterals up to the fourth degree with respect to ancestral as well as self acquired property of the last male holder as laid down in the case of Buta Singh v. Mt. Harnamon 1 .
2 of village Kingarian were number ancestral.
1 539 7 0 in preference to the respondent under the custom governing the parties hereunder the companylaterals of the last male holder excluded the daughter.
Appeal from the Judgment and Decree dated the 28th July 1949 of the High Court of Judicature for the State of Punjab at Simla in Civil Regular First Appeal No.
11 19O843 P.R. 15.
The appellant preferred cross objections against the order as to companyts and against the finding that the lands in the three villages except the land in Khata No.
On the 28th September 1944 Musammat Melo died and the Revenue Courts ordered mutations in respect of the lands in the three villages in favour of the respondent as the daughter of Gurdial.
The Subordinate Judge in his judgment pronounced on the 31st October 1946 held that the lands in suit being in possession of tenants, the suit for a declaration of title thereto was maintainable but the suit for a declaration in respect of the sum of Rs.
1195 Against this judgment and decree the respondent preferred an appeal to the Lahore High Court.
365 of 1946 arising out of the Decree dated the 31st day of October 1946 of the Court of the SubJudge, 1st Class, Pathankot in Suit No.
On the 10th March 1945 the appellant filed the suit out of which this appeal arises against the respondent for a declaration that he was entitled to the lands mentioned in the plaint as well as to the sum of 1194 Rs.
On ail objection by the appellant this amount was deposited in the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Gurdaspur, with a direction to pay the interest on this amount to Musammat Melo.
10 1889 24 P.R, 191.
1,539 7 0 was number maintainable in view of the provisions of the Indian Succession Act relating to succession certificates, that the parties were governed by custom and number by Hindu Law, that the appellant was a companylateral of Gurdial within four degrees, that the land in Khata No.
The appellant relies on the cases of Ramzan Shah v. Sohna Shah , Nanak Chand v. Basheshar Nath 11 , Mt. Massan v. Sawan Mal and Kesar Singh v. 1 1924 I.L.R. 5 Lah.
Gurdial died many years ago leaving certain lands in villages Bhadroya, Kingarian and Pathankot, Tehsil Pathankot in the district of Gurdaspur, and leaving him surviving his widow Musammat Melo and a daughter Musammat Maya Devi, the respondent before us.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Civil Appeal No.
After the companymencement of the Con stitution of India the appeal has companye before this Court for final disposal.
On an application made by the appellant on the 26th August 1949 the High Court, by its order dated the 5th June 1950, granted him a certificate of fitness to appeal to the Federal Court.
The statements in a Riwaj i am the truth of which is doubted by the companypiler himself in the preface and which stand companytradicted by the instances companylected and set out in Appendix C of the same Riwaj i am and which have been discredited in judicial proceedings and held to be incorrect cannot, in our opinion, be regarded as a reliable or trustworthy document and cannot displace the initial presumption of the general custom recorded in Rattigans book so as to shift the onus to the daughter who is the res pondent.
The respondent companytested the suit mainly on the grounds that the suit for a mere declaration was number maintainable that the parties were governed by Hindu Law and number by custom, that the appellant was number a companylateral of Gurdial at all, that the properties in suit were number ancestral, and that there was numbercustom whereunder the companylaterals of the father who was the last male holder excluded the daughter from succession to the selfacquired property of her father.
L. Gosain R. S. Narula and Naunit Lal, with him , for the respondent.
1,539 7 0 was awarded to Musammat Melo.
110 of 1945.
Some time in the year 1926, a portion of the land in village Bhadroya was acquired for the Kangra Valley Railway and a sum of Rs.
Rajinder Narain, for the appellant.
January 21.
118 of 1953.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by DAS J. This is an appeal by the plaintiff in a suit for a declaration of his title as companylateral within four degrees of Gurdial, who was a Sarswat Brahmin, resident of Pathankot in the district of Gurdaspur and the last male holder of the properties in suit.
2 of village Kingarian were number ancestral, and that according to the custom prevailing in the Gurdaspur district a daughter was entitled to succeed to number ancestral property in preference to companylaterals even though they were within the fourth degree.
By its judgment dated the 28th July 1949 the East Punjab High Court allowed the appeal and dismissed the cross objections on the following findings that the suit for declaration of title to the lands was maintainable as all the lands in suit were in the possession of tenants,, that the lands in suit except the land in Khata No.
