MANAGER BETTIAH ESTATE Vs. SRI BHAGWATI SARAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The suit of the plaintiff having been dismissed on prelimi nary issues he has come up in appeal before this Court.

(2.) The two main submissions of the appellant are that the trial court has erred in deciding these issues as preliminary issues which ought to have been left for decision after the entire evidence had been recorded along with remaining issues and that even while deciding the issues as preliminary issues the court had erred in not confining itself to the legal aspect of these issues by also entering into the merits of factual controversy.

(3.) To appreciate the controversy it would be necessary to first have the background facts leading to the suit. In the State of Bihar a large Estate known as Bettiah Estate was put under the management of the Court of Wards because its last owner Rani Janki Kunwar was said to be of unsound mind. On her death disputes arose about the succession to the property and a large number of claimants filed suits claiming succession to the estate. All these suits were ultimately disposed of by the Supreme Court by its decision reported in AIR 1983 SC 864 (sic) whereby all the suits by the various claimants were dismissed. The Court however, left it open to the State of Bihar to consider whether the estate had escheated to the State of Bihar. It was at this stage that suit No. 335/83 was filed by defendant No. 1 impleading his own father as defendant No. 1 and the court of wards Bihar and Gorakhpur as pro forma defendants Nos. 2 and 3. The defendant No. 1 initially filed the written statement but thereafter withdrew from the contest. The pro forma defendants also did not contest the suit as a result whereof the suit was decreed ex parte. Attempts were then made by the court of wards Bihar and the Collector Gorakhpur to have the ex parte decree set aside but their applications were dismissed and at present First Appeal From Orders are pending in this Court against those orders. Admittedly that aspect of the matter has not yet become final.