Judgement

Appeal from a judgment and decree of the Chief Court, Appellate Side (August 3, 1914), reversing a judgment of Robinson J. upon a new trial.

The respondents, as heirs and representatives of U Shwe Pe and Ma Shwe La, his wife, instituted a suit in the Chief Court of Lower Burma against Maung Kyin (since deceased) and Ma Ngwe Zan, his wife. They claimed possession of immovable property in the neighbourhood of Rangoon under two deeds of conveyance, both dated March 4, 1903. The defendants contended that the deeds, though in form absolute conveyances, were intended by the parties to be transfers of the rights of the defendants under deeds by which the property was in form absolutely conveyed to them, but which they contended were intended by the parties to operate merely as mortgages.

The facts appear from the judgment of their Lordships.

The suit originally came on for trial before Ormond J. on April 17, 1901, when it was held, upon the authority of the Full Bench ruling in Maung Bin v. Ma Hiding (3 Lower Burma Rulings, 100.), that the defendants, the present appellants, were precluded by s. 92 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, from giving oral evidence to show that the conv