TMI Blog1954 (4) TMI 47X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as survived by his mother, Sheokori, his widow, Mst. Badni, and his two daughters,. Bhuri and Laxmi. It is alleged that he made an oral will under which he bequeathed the property in dispute to his daughter, Laxmi. On the 6th September, 1906, Mst. Sheokori and Mst. Badni, purporting to act in accordance with the directions of the oral will, executed and registered a deed of gift of the property in dispute in favour of Mst. Laxmi. The gift deed contains the following recitals:- "These houses are made a gift to you according to the will of your father, Ramchandra......... In this way, these houses belonging to us were purchased by your father, Ramchandra, and he in his last days having made a gift of these houses to you, made a will to us that he had made a gift of that house to his daughter, Laxmi, and directed us to get the gift deed registered in her name. He further said that if we or our relations., kinsmen, creditors do raise any dispute with her he would I damangir hoonga catch hold of him by his garments. According to his aforesaid will, we have got this gift deed executed in your favour, while in best of our senses and in discharge of our sacred duty enjoined by Dharma.... ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... laim possession of it after her death, Balabux being her stridhan heir. The learned Judge however held that the suit was within limitation. On appeal, this decision was affirmed by the District Judge. He expressed the opinion that the widow in executing the deed of gift was only acting as an execution of the oral will made by Ramchandra at his deathbed and that Laxmi got under this will an absolute estate in the suit property. The plea of limitation raised by the defendant was negatived on the finding that the plaintiff was in possession of it within twelve years of the suit. Plaintiff preferred a second appeal to the High Court of Jaipur and this time with success. The High Court held that after the death of Laxmi the plaintiff continued in possession of the house till he was dispossessed by the defendant on the 5th of October, 1933, and that he was in possession even during her lifetime. On the main question in the case the High Court held that though the house was bequeathed to Laxmi by Ram chandra under an oral will, there was no proof that it conferred upon her an absolute interest in the property and that in the absence of any evidence indicating that the donor intended to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... learned counsel then contended that the High Court was in error in granting the certificate in this case. We are unable to agree. An inquiry was made into the valuation of the property and it was reported that its value was Rs. 20,000 or that the decision affected property of the value of above Rs. 20,000. A substantial question of law was involved in the case, that is, whether a testamentary disposition by a Hindu in favour of a female' heir conferred on her only a limited estate in the absence of evidence that he intended to confer on her an absolute interest in the property. In these circumstances the High Court was fully justified in granting the certificate. We ourselves would have been prepared to admit this appeal under our extraordinary powers conferred by article 136(1) of the Constitution, if such a certificate had not been given in the case. For the reasons given above we see no force in either of these two preliminary objections which we overrule. Dr. Bakshi Tek Chand for the appellant contended that the Courts below were in error in holding that the plaintiff's suit was within limitation. He urged that in order to bring the suit within limitation the plaintiff in par ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al will and that 'being so, the gift being in favour of a female heir, the presumption in the absence of evidence to the contrary was that the donee got only a limited life interest in the bequeathed property. In our judgment, there is force in the contention of Dr. Tek Chand and none of the contentions raised by the respondent's 'counsel have any validity. That Ramchandra bequeathed the suit property and did not gift it to his daughter Laxmi is a fact which cannot be questioned at this stage. It was admitted by the plaintiff himself in the witness box. This is what he said :- "Ramchandra had made a will in favour of Mst. Laxmi and in that connection my maternal grandmother and maternal great grandmother got the gift deed registered. This very gift deed was got executed by my maternal grandmother and maternal great grandmother and had got it registered. Through this gift deed Mot. Laxmi held possession over it till she was alive. She had kept deponent as her son and so she got the rent notes executed in my name."' What is admitted by a party to be true must be presumed to be true unless the contrary is shown. There is no evidence to the contrary in the case. The gift deed fully s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd the fact that the donee is a woman does not make the gift any the less absolute where the words would be sufficient to convey an absolute estate to a male (see Nagammal v. Subbalakshmi Ammal() 21 A. 7). The matter has now been set at rest by the decision of this Court in Ram Gopal v. Nand Lal. In this case it was observed as follows:-- " It may be taken to be quite settled that there is no warrant for the proposition of law that when a grant of an immovable property is made to a Hindu female, she does not get an absolute or alienable interest in such property, unless such power is expressly conferred upon her. The reasoning adopted by Mitter J. of the Calcutta High Court in Mst. Kollani Kuar v. Luchmi Kuar(24 W.R. 395), which was approved of and accepted by the Judicial Committee in a number of decisions, seems to me to be unassailable. It was held by the Privy Council as early as in the case of Tagore V. Tagire (9 Beng. L.R. 377, P.C.) that if an estate were given to a man without express words of inheritance, it would, in the absence of a conflicting context, carry, by Hindu Law, an estate of inheritance. This is the general principle of law which is recognized and embodied in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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