BABU LAL Vs. JANAK DULARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We are of opinion that this appeal fails. The point is a simple one. One Maheshi Lal left a widow surviving him, who executed two mortgages under circumstances which are not known, and which have never been investigated upon the question whether the loan made by the widow was either for legal necessity, or for some other purpose which by Hindu Law binds the estate.

(2.) The mortgagee shortly before the death of the widow sued her and obtained a decree for sale. On the death of the widow or some little time afterwards, he applied for execution, and sought to join or bring on the record two daughters of the deceased widow and of their father, the deceased Maheshi Lal, on the ground that they were the legal representatives of the deceased widow. They objected. Their objection took the obvious form that they were not the legal representatives of their deceased mother because there was nothing to represent. They were the legal representatives, or reversioners of their deceased father and the decree against the widow could have no more binding effect than the mortgage contract which she had entered into in her capacity as a Hindu widow with a Hindu widow's estate. The Munsif rejected this objection taking the view that they were the legal representatives of the widow and that in questioning whether the decree was binding upon the estate in the hands of the reversioners, they were seeking to go behind the decree in the execution Court.

(3.) On an appeal brought to the Subordinate Judge this view was overruled, and the Subordinate Judge has explained the law in a very clear and able judgment, holding that in substance the decision of the first Court really begged the whole question, and that the daughters were entitled to contest the view in the execution Court that they were legal representatives of their deceased mother, inasmuch as it had never been decided whether the mortgage, or the decree-based thereon bound the whole estate, or anything more than the interest of the Hindu widow; and he remitted the case to enable that question to be decided.