Judgement

BEG, J. :- This is a Defendant s Appeal, by grant of Special Leave, against the judgment and decree of a learned Judge of the Allahabad High Court allowing a plaintiff s second appeal.

2. The plaintiff s case was that the Government of Rampur had given him a house "under the orders of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur, passed on 23rd June, 1945. It appears that, after the merger of Rampur State in Uttar Pradesh in 1949, when Rampur became a District of Uttar Pradesh, this house was given by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to the Municipal Board of Rampur. Defendant-Appellant, which demanded rent from the plaintiff by notice. On the plaintiff s refusal to pay, the house was attached on 23rd February, 1955. The plaintiff deposited a sum of Rupees 100/- under protest. He then filed his suit, on 26-10-56, for a declaration that he is the owner in possession of the house, and, in the alternative that he is a "licensee" entitled to remain in possession of the house for life without payment of any rent.

3. The defendants, the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Municipal Board of Rampur, and the Public Works Department at Rampur, denied the alleged gift of either the ownership or of a life-interest in the house of to the plaintiff. They also pleaded that there was no relationship of landlord and tenant between the plaintiff and the defendants. Their case was that, if any permission to reside in the house was given to the plaintiff by the ruler of the State of Rampur before the merger of Rampur with Uttar Pradesh, it was valid and effective only so long as the plaintiff was in the service of the former ruler of Rampur. They set up a claim to "damages for use and occupation in the form of rent from the plaintiff at Rupees 10/- per month from 1-4-1953 to 30-1-1954". According to them the plaintiff s license, if any, automatically terminated when the State of Rampur merged with the State of Uttar Pradesh. The defendants had also pleaded that the alleged gift, which was not governed by Mahomedan law, could not be upheld because no registered deed of gift was executed to transfer a house the value of which was far in excess of Rupees 100/-

4. The Trial Court as well as the first Appellate Court has found, after an examination of all the evidence including the alleged order dated 23rd June 1945, of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur (Exhibit 1), a letter dated 30th June 1949 (Exhibit A-10) from a Minister of Rampur State to "the Secretary (Buildings)", fixing rent for the house and the oral evidence that the plaintiff had proved either of the two alternative claims set up by him. A learned Judge of the Allahabad High Court had, upon the plaintiff s second appeal, reversed the concurrent findings of fact recorded by the Courts below because the learned Judge thought that "the order of the Nawab of Rampur dated 23rd June 1945", constituting a valid declaration of a gift, by the owner of the house, followed by the plaintiffs admitted actual possession of the house, conferred ownership of the house upon the plaintiff-respondent according to Mahomedan law. The learned Judge also held that nothing beyond this order of the Nawab could be looked into for deciding what was intended by the Nawab and that the use of the words "inteqal" and "atta" in the following extract from the order in Urdu determined the intent of the Nawab conclusively. "Ap ki sakunat ke waste Abdul Karim Sahib wala makan atta farmaya gaya hai. Ap aj hi us me muntaquil ho jayen ...... A un se mil kar intequal makan ki karrawai kariye".

5. The questions arising before us for decision are firstly, whether the alleged gift is governed by Mahomedan Law, secondly, whether the requirements of Mahomedan law for establishing a gift of the house or of its usufruct for life of the plaintiff could be held to have been satisfied in this case; and, thirdly, whether nothing beyond the order of 23-6-1945 could be looked into a determine the Nawab s intention.

6. One could legitimately presume that a g