HITENDRA SINGH Vs. MAHARAJA OF DARBHANGA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Their Lordships do not consider it necessary to call upon the respondents in this case, as the question for determination lies within a small compass and they have no doubt on the answer. The facts which have given rise to this litigation are fully stated in the judgments of the Courts in India; but a short resume is necessary to elucidate how the question has arisen in this case.

(2.) It appears that one Durga Dutt Singh, who owned 71/2 annas share of the village of Laheri which he held under a babuana grant in the district of Darbhanga, found himself considerably involved in debt in 1870; and his property was threatened with sale in execution of decrees against him. In order to pay off the debt, which amounted to over Rs. 41,000, he professed to transfer to his wife Anurgin Bahuasin the property in suit for a consideration of Rs. 41,532. The transaction between husband and wife is, in these proceedings, called a " hiba-bil-ewaz," and the question for determination turns upon the construction of this document.

(3.) The debt for which the transfer was ostensibly executed was discharged with the money Durga Dutt Singh obtained under it. Their Lordships purposely use the word " ostensibly " in order to leave their decision until later in the course of the judgment.