Judgment

SHELAT, J.:- Two questions arise in this appeal. The first is whether the transaction evidenced by Ex. 1, dated March 20, 1915 was a family arrangement so as to confer on the appellant and his father, Nanhku Prasad, since deceased, title to a half share in the house in dispute. The second is that even if it was so, whether such title became extinguished as a result of adverse possession for the statutory period by Baijnath, the deceased husband of respondent 1.

2. The parties are near relations. The following genealogy explains the relationship amongst them:

3. There is no dispute that Amar Singh purchased from his own funds under a registered deed, dated January 20, 1898, the land on which the house in dispute stands. His son, Nanhku, the deceased father of the present appellant, was taken in adoption sometime prior to March 20, 1915 by Ramji Singh and his wife Patreja Kuer as they had no issue, whereupon Nanhku ceased to have any interest in the properties owned by Amar Singh and his branch. In 1933. Nanhku and the present appellant, than a minor, filed Suit No. 33 of 1933 against Sonadhari, Tarkeshwar, Baijnath and Reshmi Kuer (the widow of Amar Singh, wrongly described by the High Court as the wife of Rajkumar in the genealogy set out in its judgment) in respect of certain properties which had nothing to do with the house in dispute. The written statement filed in that suit was that Nanhku had been paid the price of his share in the house in dispute and that the entire house, consequently, belonged to and was since then in the exclusive possession of the defendants. The suit went upto the High Court when in 1941 a compromise application was filed by the parties settling that suit. But, as the suit had nothing as aforesaid to do with the house in dispute nothing was said about the allegation that Nanhku had been paid off in respect of his interest in that house.

4. In 1949 Nanhku and the appellant filed the instant suit for a declaration of their half share in the house in dispute. In answer to the suit the respondents raised three defences: (1) that Nanhku and the appellant derived no interest under Ex. 1, (2) that assuming that they derived such interest it was relinquished by them on being paid the price thereof, and (3) that in any event they lost their interest by reason of adverse possession by respondents. The Trial Court rejected all the three defences raised by the respondents and decreed the suit, holding that Nanhku had acquired one-half share in the said house under Ex.1. Against that decree two appeals were filed in the High Court one by respondent 1 and the other by some of the other respondents. These appeals were heard first by a learned Single Judge of the High Court Before the learned Single Judge the finding of the Trial Court that Nanhku and the present appellant had not relinquished their interest in the house on their being paid the price thereof was not disputed. The only questions agitated before the learned Single Judge, therefore, were whether Nanhku had a half share, that is to say, whether he derived his title to the half share under and by virtue of Ex. 1, and if so, whether he lost it as a result of adverse possession by the respondents.

5. In inspect of the first question, the parties urged two conflicting pleas. Nanhku and the appellant contended that Ex. 1 was a family arrangement under which he got half share in the house and that that family arrangement was valid and binding on the parties. The respondents, on the other hand, contended that Ex. 1 was only a Ladavi deed, that is, a deed of relinquishment. The argument on behalf of Nanhku and the appellant was that there were outstanding disputes between the different branches of the family of Rajkumar, and those disputes were ultimately settled at the instance of and with the aid of certain family friends resulting in Ex. 1 by way of a family arrangement. Therefore, even if Nanhku and the appellant were not able to show their anterior t