Judgement

Appeal (No. 32 of 1932) by special leave from a decree of the High Court (January 29, 1930) affirming a decree of the Subordinate Judge of Cuttack (November 30, 1925).

The suit was instituted by Banamalai, since deceased and represented by the respondents, claiming by inheritance an impartible zamindari in Orissa upon the death of Raja Bibhudendra, who died in December, 1922, unmarried and at the age of twenty years and six months. The plaintiff alleged that according to the custom of the family females were excluded from inheritance, and that an adoption of the first appellant, Amarendra, made a week after the death of Raja Bibhudendra by the second appellant, Rani Indumati, his mother, was invalid. It was not disputed in the appeal that if the custom alleged was established, and if the adoption was invalid, the plaintiff was entitled to inherit the property as the nearest sapinda. The parties were governed by the Benares school of the Mitakshara law. The zamindari was claimed on the basis that it was separate property, and it was treated throughout as being so.

The facts appear more fully from the judgment of the Judicial Committee.

Both Courts in India found that the c