Judgement

Appeal from a judgment and decree of the High Court (September 23, 1910) reversing a judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge of Poona (July 31, 1906).

The suit was instituted by the appellants to establish the validity of the adoption of the fourth appellant, Jagannath Vasudeo, as the son of Vasudeo Harihar Pandit, deceased (known as Baba Maharaj), and to obtain ancillary declarations.

Baba Maharaj, who was a Brahman by caste, died on August 7, 1897, possessed of considerable ancestral property, and leaving a widow, Sakvarbai, then about sixteen years of age, and three daughters. By his will he appointed live named persons (the three first appellants and two others) as trustees to carry on the management of his estates after his death. The will provided that if his widow Sakvarbai did not give birth to a son, or if a son should be born but should be short-lived, then "with the vichare" (i.e., the advice or consent) "of the above-named gentlemen " (namely, the persons named as trustees) "a boy should be given as often as may be necessary in adoption on the lap of my wife in accordance with the shastras." One of the five named trustees declined to act, but the other fo