Sir George Lowndes - (1.) The principal question of the many, involved in these appeals is as to the right of succession to an important talukdari estate in Oudh, known as Kunwa Khera. The last holder was Nawab Baqar Ali Khan, who died intestate on 17 January 1921. He left him surviving two widows, four sons, of whom Nawab Mirza Mohammad Sadiq Ali Khan was the eldest, and one daughter. The pedigree of the family, so far as it is necessary for the determination of the appeals, is as below, the names of females being printed in italics :
(2.) The appeals arise out of two separate suits, the first of which was instituted by the junior widow, Fakr Jahan Begum, and her two children, Taqi Ali and Abid Jahan, who will be referred to in this judgment as the plaintiffs. They claimed their shares according to the Shiah Mahomedan law, to which the parties are subject, in the whole estate of Baqar Ali, including the Kunwa Khera property. To this suit the other widow and her three sons, and also Jafar Ali, the brother of Baqar Ali, were joined as defendants. Jafar Ali died pending the suit, and his heirs were brought on the record in his place, but took no part in the proceedings. Naqi Ali also died, pendente lite, and is now represented by his widow, Jaddo Begam. Neither she nor her assignee, Dilawar Ali, have appeared before the Board. The second suit was brought by Fakr Jahan alone, claiming the sum of Rs. 50,000 as due to her foe dower out of the property left by Baqar Ali. To this suit all the other parties, with the exception of Jafar Ali, were defendants.
(3.) The first suit involved various questions as to Baqar Ali's estate, including the validity of a number of dispositions of property made by him during his lifetime, as to most of which there were concurrent findings of the Courts in India. There are now five appeals before the Board, which have been consolidated ; four of them arise out of the first and principal suit and the remaining one out of the dower suit. The parties are ranged on different sides on the various questions involved, according to their individual interests. On the question as to the succession to the Kunwa Khera estate, with which their Lordships will first deal, Sadiq Ali, claiming as the eldest son by the right of primogeniture, is opposed by all the other parties. His claim succeeded in both the Indian Courts, but is disputed before the Board. The estate was the subject of two sanads, dated respectively in 1858 and 1861, by each of which it was granted to Amjad Ali, the father of Baqar Ali, subject to descent by the rule of primogeniture. The reason for the two sanads is unexplained. They are to all intents in the same terms.;