GOVIND SINGH Vs. RAM PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against an order of the District Judge of Shahjehanpur appointing Ram Prasad the guardian of his infant daughter. Ram Prasad, a Brahmin by caste, applied to the Court to be appointed as the guardian of Mt. Man Piari who was then about five years of age. He alleged that the little girl was his illegitimate daughter conceived in adulterous intercourse between him and Mt. Sukh Dei now deceased, Mt. Sukh Dei was the legal wife of the appellant Govind Singh, but the learned Judge has found that at the time of conception of Mt. Man Piari Mt. Sukh Dei was living with Ram Prasad and that Govind Singh had no access to her. In those circumstances the learned Judge found as a fact that Mt. Man Piari was the daughter of Ram Prasad and that the appellant Govind Singh was not related to her in any way. For about eleven months before these proceedings were brought Mt. Man Piari had been living with Govind Singh, but the record is silent as to how she came to live with him. According to the learned Judge the little girl appeared to be living quite happily with Govind Singh and it is not suggested that she had been ill-treated or neglected in any way by him. On the other hand no suggestion has been made in these proceedings that the father Ram Prasad is in any way unfit to have the custody of his own illegitimate daughter. The learned Judge after considering these facts came to the conclusion that the proper person to apt as guardian for Mt. Man Piari was her father Ram Prasad and he accordingly made an order declaring Ram Prasad as such guardian.

(2.) Against that order this appeal has been preferred and it is contended that by reason of Section 19, Guardians and Wards Act, such an order could not be made. Section 19, Guardians and Wards Act provides that nothing in this Chapter shall authorise the Court to appoint and declare a guardian of the person of a minor whose father is living and is not in the opinion of the-Court unfit to be guardian of the person of the minor. It is not suggested that Ram Prasad the father of the minor is in any way unfit to be guardian of this little girl and that being so it is contended that the Court cannot make an order appointing him or any body else as guardian. It is said that the father is the natural guardian, and where he is a fit and proper person to be a guardian of the minor no order appointing a guardian can be made by any Court.

(3.) This view of the section has been taken by a Bench of this Court in Ulfat Bibi V/s. Bafati 1927 All 581. In that case the father of an infant applied to be appointed as guardian but the Court held that an order appointing him as such guardian was invalid by reason of Section 19, Guardians and Wards Act. This case followed an earlier decision of the Privy Council in Annie Besant V/s. Naraynah 1914 P.C. 41. Having regard to these authorities we are bound to hold that Ram Prasad could not be appointed guardian of his illegitimate daughter Mt. Man Piari and therefore that the order made by the learned District Judge cannot be supported.