MINOR RAMSUNDER BHAGAT Vs. RAMBHAROSI BHAGAT AND AFTER HIM MT RAJIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal is by the defendants to an action for a declaration that defendant No. 1 was not the adopted son of the plaintiff. It is said that, on the 1st March, 1948, the plaintiff had executed a will in favour of defendant No. 1 stating that, after his death and that of his wife, defendant No. 1 would succeed to his properties. That document was registered, but, when the plaintiff saw that document, he learnt that defendant No. 2, father of defendant No. 1, out of ill will and malice had introduced an absolutely false recital in the document to the effect that the plaintiff had taken defendant not in adoption as his son. This introduction of the recital caused apprehension in the mind of the plaintiff that defendant No. 2 was out to do mischief and create trouble for his wife about the enjoyment of the properties after the death of the plaintiff. It is further said that the plaintiff destroyed the will, and gave notice to defendant No. 2 about the fraudulent insertion of the recital above mentioned in the said will. Upon these allegations, the suit was brought for a declaration as mentioned above. The defence, so far as it is relevant for the purposes of the present appeal, was that defendant No. 1 had been actually taken in adoption, and that he was residing with the plaintiff since before the date of actual adoption, but had been driven out of the house after the institution of the suit which was brought at the instance of the wife of the plaintiff who proposed to give four bighas of land to a relation of her, to which defendant No. 2 did not agree.

(2.) The first Court dismissed the suit. On appeal by the plaintiff, the suit has been decreed, and the declaration sought for by the plaintiff has been given, after recording a finding that the story of adoption was myth and was not proved.

(3.) During the pendency of the second appeal in this Court, the plaintiff died, and he has been substituted by, his wife.