- (1.) Jagdish Mitter Bhandari and ors. have filed this revision petition against the order of the learned Rent Controller, Jullundur, dated 15th of February, 1979 by which all the sons, daughters and widow of Gurcharan Dass have been held to be the legal representative of Gurcharan Dass deceased.
(2.) It is not necessary to state the facts as the only contention raised before by Mr. M.L. Sarin, learned counsel for the petitioners is that the Rent Controller could not go into the validity of the will and that the moment the will was produced, it was incumbent on the Rent Controller to have impleaded only the legatees as the legal representative. In support of his contention, the learned counsel has placed reliance on the judgment of this court in Mangat etc. v. Surja, 1979 CurLJ 119.
(3.) After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, I find no merit in this contention of the learned counsel. For the purpose of impleading the legal representatives, certain summary enquiry has to be carried out by the learned Rent Controller. The petitioners have produced the will, the genuineness of which was disputed by Kewal Krishan, one of the remaining legal representatives. In this situation, it had become incumbent on the learned Rent Controller to have gone into the validity of the will. After considering the whole evidence, the learned Rent Controller found as a fact that he will was not a genuine document and thereafter all the heirs f Gurcharan Dass were ordered to be brought on the record. To me, there appears no illegality in the impugned order. The fear of Mr. Sarin is that this finding of the learned Rent Controller may not become res judicata in any subsequent proceedings in Civil Court. This fear of the learned counsel is imaginary Kewal Krishan can always challenge the validity of the will by the filing a separate suit and I am told by Mr. G.R. Majithia, learned counsel for the respondents that already a suit has been field in the Civil Court by Kewal Krishan challenging the validity of the will. In that suit, the Civil Court would independently determine the genuineness of the will and the finding given by the learned Rent Controller in these summary proceedings can never be binding on the Civil Court. The finding about the validity of the will has been given in these proceedings only for the purpose of deciding the application under Order 22 Rules 4 and 5 of the Code of Civil Procedure.;