JUDGMENT

FAZAL ALI, J. (Majority View) :— This appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Calcutta High Court discloses an unfortunate litigation which proves the well known legal maxim "delay defeats justice" and arises out of a Will executed by the testator which was hotly contested by various rival claimants resulting in an action which went on merrily and sprightly for almost three decades as a result of which in the back-waters of the long drawn litigation most of the claimants died and their successors were interested not in the property but in the money which the property would bring, if sold.

2. As a result of internecine dispute between the heirs, an Official Receiver had to be appointed to look after the property and the final end of the drama seems to have begun when the Receiver, on the request of the parties, decided to sell the property with the permission of the Court by a private treaty lest the litigation might draw the last drop of the blood of the property rights of the heirs. Meanwhile, some more events followed which made the task of the Receiver both complex and complicated as the respondents put up their claim to possession of the property either in t