Judgement

Appeal (No. 26 of 1945) from a judgment and decree of the High Court (August 29, 1941) which affirmed a judgment and decree of the Court of the First Civil Judge of Saharanpur, District Saharanpur (January 10, 1938).

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee. The parties in the action out of which this appeal arose were Hindus subject to the Mitakshara law of the Benares School, and this appeal involved the con struction of the Hindu Law of Inheritance (Amendment) Act, 1929 (II. of 1929) which is hereinafter referred to as " the Act." The Act was not expressed to come into operation on a particular day. It received the assent of the Governor General on February 21, 1929, and under the provisions of s. 5 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (X. of 1897) it came into operation immediately on the expiration of February 20, 1929. The description and preamble of the Act made it clear that the object of the Act was to alter the order of succession of certain persons therein mentioned, namely, a sons daughter, daughters daughter, sister, and sisters son, and to rank them as heirs in the specified order of succession next after a fathers father and bef