Judgment

AYYANGAR, J.: This is an appeal preferred by virtue of a certificate of fitness granted by the Calcutta High Court against its judgment by which the decree passed by the Subordinate Judge of Darjeeling was substantially affirmed.

2. The plaintiffs are the appellants before this Court. The suit out of which the appeal arises was brought by the appellants claiming title to and the recovery of possession of a property known as the Azamabad Tea Estate which comprised about 378 acres of land in Touzi No. 911 of the Darjeeling Collectorate. This property was set out in Schedule A to the plaint and besides a claim was also made to certain other items of the movables and certain other tenures, but this appeal is not concerned with these others which were set out in Schs. B and C to the plaint.

3. One Kazi Azam Ali was admittedly a full owner of this entire property and the proceedings giving rise to the appeal are concerned with the rights of his heirs to it. The plaintiffs claim their title on the basis of various purchases from the heirs of this Azam Ali. The contesting defendants were the Azamabad Tea Co. who also claim the entire property as transferees from the National Agency Co. Ltd., who too have been impleaded as defendants. The National Agency Co. Ltd. claimed to have purchased the entire 16 as, interest in the property at a Court sale in pursuance of a decree obtained by them against Kazi Mohammed Ismail, the eldest son of Azam Ali. Various contentions were raised by the plaintiffs in challenge of the validity of the transactions by which the defendants claimed their title. But the learned Subordinate Judge repelled the plaintiffs claim and . held that the purchase by the National Agency Co. Ltd. was valid and extended to the entire interest in the property and that in consequence the plaintiffs vendors had no title to convey to them any interest in the property. The plaintiffs claim of the property in respect of Sch. A was therefore dismissed. The plaintiffs preferred an appeal to the High Court and the learned Judges upheld the title of the plaintiffs to an 8 pies share in the property mentioned in Sch. A to the plaint but confirmed the decree of the Subordinate Judge as regards the rest. The learned Judges however granted a certificate of fitness to the plantiffs on the strength of which the present appeal has been filed.

4. The history of the transactions before the suit occupies a period of over 20 years and the facts in relation thereto are at once long, voluminous and complicated. But for the disposal of the appeal and the points urged before us it is wholly unnecessary to set these out and we shall therefore confine ourselves to a narration of the bare outlines of the case along with these facts which are necessary to appreciate the contentions raised in support of the appeal.

5. The property covered by the Tea Estate was granted by Government by way of lease to one Mudir and another for 30 years, the term to start on the lst of April 1898. The grantees effected transfers of their lease-hold and after several successive transfers the property was purchased in 1913 by one Kazi Azam Ali who got his name registered as a proprietor. It was Azam Ali who started the tea garden, constructed the requisite factories as accessories thereto and named it the Azamabad Tea Estate. Azam Ali had several Children and among them 8 daughters and in consideration of gifts made to them, these daughters by a registered deed executed in 1909 relinquished their rights of succession to Azam Ali. They thus faded away from the picture and no more notice need be taken of them. Besides these 8 daughters, Azam Ali had 8 sons who survived him and were among his heirs, when he died on June 8, 1917. Mohamed Ismail was the eldest of these sons. Azam Ali also left behind him a daughter who was born after the relinquishment of 1909 and three widows. Admittedly the son of Azam Ali, his widows and his last daughter were all his heirs entitled