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1962 (1) TMI 77

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..... l jurisdiction against the orders rejecting their respective petitions but without success. They have with special leave appealed to this Court against the orders passed by the High Court. The case set up by the plaintiff in his petition was briefly this. Maharaja Sir Man Singh holder of the Ajodhya Raj was a Taluqdar in lists I, II and V of the Oudh states set I of 1869. He died in 1870 and the Raj devolved upon his daughter's son Maharaja Pratap Narain Singh, who died on November 9, 1906, leaving him surviving two widows Suraj Kumari and Jagdamba Devi and no lineal descendant. A will alleged to be executed by Maharaja Pratap Narain Singh on July 20, 1891, was set up but it was void and ineffective because, firstly, it was procured by undue influence, coercion and fraud practised upon the testater, and, secondly it created a line of succession contrary to law. Accordingly on the death of Maharaja Pratap Narain Singh the Raj devolved upon Maharani Suraj Kumari the senior widow and on her death in 1927 upon Maharani Jugdamba Devi, and on the death of the latter on June 18, 1928 upon Ganga Dutt Misir, grand father of the plaintiff Ganga Dutt Misir died in 1942 and the estate d .....

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..... petition it be held that the estate came to be governed by the ordinary Hindu Law, it did not become a partible estate which the plaintiff could inherit, so long at his father Ramjiwan was alive. The petition filed by Ramjiwan Misir was then taken up for hearing and was also rejected because, in the view of the learned Judge, no useful purpose would be served by transposing Ram Jiwan Misir as co- plaintiff when the application filed by the plaintiff was held to be defective and liable to be rejected under O. 33, r. 5(d), of the Code of Civil Procedure. Against the two orders passed by the subordinate Judge the plaintiff preferred Revision Application No. 881 of 1952 and Ram Jiwan preferred Revision Petition 882 of 1952. The High Court rejected the petition of the plaintiff holding that on the death of Ganga Dutt in 1942 the estate would devolve upon Ram Jiwan Misir alone according to the rule of impartibility which governed the devolution of the estate. The High Court also observed that there was nothing in the petition to show that Ganga Dutt succeeded to the estate on the basis of his being the nearest male reversioner under the Ordinary Hindu Law , and that it was unneces .....

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..... petition. Rule 4 authorises the Court to examine the applicant or his agent regarding the merits of the case and the property of the applicant. Rule 5 provides: The Court shall reject an application for permission to sue as a pauper- (a) where it is not framed and presented in the manner prescribed by rules 2 and 3, or (b) where the applicant is not a pauper, or (c) where he has, within two months next before the presentation of the application, disposed of any property fraudulently or in order to be able to apply for permission to sue as a pauper, or (d) where his allegations do not show a cause of action, or (e) where he has entered into any agreement with reference to the subject matter of the proposed suit under which any other person has obtained an interest in such subject matter. Where the application is not rejected on the grounds set out in r. 5, the Court has under r. 6, to proceed, after giving notice to the opposite party and the Government pleader, to receive evidence as the applicant may adduce in proof of his pauperiam. By r. 7 the Court is authorised to consider where the applicant is not subject to any of the prohibitions specified in r. 5. T .....

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..... f Act I of 1869 on which the plaintiff himself relies, the plaintiff had an alternative claim that the estate had become non-taluqdari by virtue of the will and the acts and declaration of Maharaja Pratap Narain. In support of this claim, s. 15 of Act I of 1869, before it was amended by U. P. Act III of 1910, is relied upon. At the time when Maharaja Pratap Narain died, s. 15 of the Act stood as follows:- If any taluqdar or grantee shall hereto-before have transferred or bequeathed, or if any taluqdar or grantee or his heir or legatee shall hereafter transfer or bequeath, to any person not being a taluqdar or grantee the whole or any portion of his estate, and such person would not have succeeded according to the provisions of this Act to the estate or to a portion thereof if the transferor or testator had died without having made the transfer and intestate, the transfer of and succession to the property so transferred or bequeathed shall be regulated by the rules which would have governed the transfer of and succession to such property if the transferee or legatee had brought the same from a person not being a taluqdar or grantee. It is true that by s. 8 of Act III of 19 .....

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..... petition for leave to sue discloses a cause of action. The High Court, in our judgment, was in error in observing that there was nothing in the plaint to show that Ganga Dutt succeeded to the estate because he was the nearest male reversioner under the ordinary Hindu law. The plaintiff has emphatically made that assertion: whether the claim to relief on the basis of that assertion was justified must be adjudicated at the trial of the suit, and not in deciding whether the plaintiff should be permitted to sue in forma pauperis. We are also of the view that the High Court was in error in holding that by an application to sue in forma pauperis, the applicant prays for relief personal to himself. An application to sue in forma pauperis, is but a method prescribed by the Code for institution of a suit by a pauper without payment of fee prescribed by the Court Fees Act. If the claim made by the applicant that he is a pauper is not establish the application may fail. But there is nothing personal in such an application. The suit commences from the moment an application for permission to sue in forma pauperis as required by O. 33 of the Code of Civil Procedure is presented, and O. 1, .....

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