Judgement

JUDGMENT :- This appeal having arisen from the judgment and order of the Bombay High Court relates to two properties which belonged to one Syed Abdulla Inamdar. On his death, he was succeeded by six children; four of whom are sons and two daughters. The eldest son is Abubakar.

2. On the death of Syed Abdulla, agricultral lands which were Inams in his hands, were assigned to Abubakar, the eldest son, by certain orders passed by the Ruler of Kolhapur as Inams of two kinds. It is the admitted case of the parties that these Inams were impartible and had to devolve upon the eldest son by the rule of primogeniture. The other porperty was a dwelling unit which was owned by Sayed Abdulla and remained in possession of Abubakar.

3. On the abolition of the Inams under the provisions of the Bombay merged Territories Miscellaneous Alienations Abolition Act, 1955, Abubakar was regarded as a Watandar on re-grant of the properties. His brothers and sisters, on the one side, laid claims to those lands as co-heirs of Abubakar, taking the plea that by virtue of inheritance, they had a share in that property; the bar of impartibility and the rule of primogeniture having gone. Regarding the house property, they laid claims to partition it as heirs. Abubakar resisted the suit by laying claim that the landed properties which were erstwhile Inams became on re-grant personal in his hands and therefore the other heirs of Syed Abdulla had no share in those. Regarding the house he put up the plea of adverse possession, even though, avowedly, he had a Will in his favour from his father. The trial Court partly decreed the suit against him insofar as the Inam lands were concerned but dismissed the suit insofar as the house was concerned ; and the lower appellate Court affirmed that decision. Before the High Court the appeal of Abubakar as also the cross-objections of his opponents were taken up together. The appeal of Abubakar was dismissed and the cross-objections on the contrary were allowed with the result that the entire suit stood decreed, rejecting the claim of Abubakar of the Inam lands being personal to him and the house being in his adverse possession, maturing in his ownerships.

4. We have heard Mr. Ganpule, learned senior counsel for the appellant-Abubakar, at great length and pointedly with regard to the nature of regrant after the abolition of the Inam. It stands conceded by him that the terms of the grant are not in any manner peculiar to the facts emerging in this case but rather are the usual ones which find mention in such grants. He was frank enough to concede before us that had the parties been Hindus then the two decisions of this Court, namely, (i) Nagesh Bisto Desai v. Khando Tirmal Desai, (1982) 3 SCP 341 : (AIR 1982 SC 887) and (ii) Annasaheb Bapusaheb Patil v. Balwant (dead) by Lrs and heirs, (1995) 2 SCC 543 :(1995 AIR SCW 709) would have taken over the field to hold that the properties in the hands of the Watandar were joint family properties and partible after the regrant. He tried in vain to convince us that principally it would make a difference if the parties were Mohammedans, as presently they are. If we come to analyse the proposition convassed, Syed Abdullas estate should normally have devolved upon his six children in accordance with the shares as defined by the Shariat Law. But, since the properties were Inams and impartible and the services to the Ruler due from the members of the family were expected to be taken from the eldest son by the rule of primogeniture, then the heirs of Syed Abdulla, even though not forming a joint Hindu family as is known to Hindu Law, would still be a group of people, the representative of which was Abubakar in order to hold the Inam. Once that Inam was abolished and regrant given to Abubakar, impartibility of the estate vanished and thus this group of people were difinitely entitled to claim their respective shares in accordance with the law of Shairat. All the three courts below h