- (1.) THE cause is succession of late Krishna Gopal Bajpai. The issue is of territorial jurisdiction as to in which district court application for succession certificate would lie. Late Krishna Gopal Bajpai was a native of district Fatehpur. He died in an accident at Etawah where he was serving in U.P. Police and was posted for about 10 years before this death. During his service, he had constructed a house at Kanpur but never resided therein.
(2.) SMT . Ram Devi, the widow of late Krishna Gopal Bajpai applied under Section 372 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) for grant of succession certificate in the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Fatehpur arraying her three sons Manish Kumar, Abhishek Kumar and Anoop Kumar as the defendants. In the said proceedings registered as Succession Case No.80/70 of 2007, Smt. Neelam Bajpai and Devesh Kumar applied for impleadment claiming to be the widow and son of late Krishna Gopal Bajpai. The impleadment was allowed and they were permitted to contest the grant of succession certificate. They accordingly filed written statement and took the plea of jurisdiction to the effect that the courts at Fatehpur have no jurisdiction in the matter as the deceased was last ordinarily residing at Etawah and, therefore, in view of Section 371 of the Act the courts at Etawah alone have jurisdiction to deal with the application for succession certificate. The aforesaid Devesh Kumar Bajpai also moved an application, paper No.125 Ga to decide the question of jurisdiction first before proceeding with the application for grant of succession certificate. The court below by the impugned order dated 5.10.2012 held that the territorial jurisdiction in the matter vests with the court at Fatehpur and is competent to deal with the matter. Accordingly the objection and application of Devesh Kumar Bajpai has been rejected. The above order has been impugned in this revision under Section 115 C.P.C.
(3.) THE argument of Sri Arvind Kumar Tiwari, learned counsel for Devesh Kumar (revisionist herein) is that in view of the language used in Section 371 of the Act the district Judge within whose jurisdiction the deceased was ordinarily residing at the time of his death alone has jurisdiction to deal with the application and all other contingencies in respect of place of suing are alternative and would not apply where the deceased was having a fixed place of residence. Sri Manvendra Singh, learned counsel appearing for Smt. Ram Devi and her sons (respondents) contend that as the deceased was a permanent resident of Fatehpur and has also left properties at Fatehpur, the court below has rightly held that the court at Fatehpur has the jurisdiction in the matter. He also submitted that the application for grant of succession certificate filed by the revisionist at Etawah was rejected for want of jurisdiction and, therefore, he cannot now take a stand that the jurisdiction in the matter vests with the courts at Etawah.;