Judgement

These appeals were brought from decrees of the High Court, and, as regarded the first three, were from decrees made in suits between the same parties, [@ page M.I.A. 552] and as regarded the

72 11 M.I.A. 551 ( 1866- 1867) Moonshee Buzloor Ruheem V. Shumsoonnissa Begum 174

fourth, which related to property, the title to which involved the same rights of the Respondent, were all heard together. The first suit was brought by the Respondent, Shumsoonnissa Begum, the wife of the Appellant, Moonshee Buzloor Ruheem, to recover possession of certain real and personal property stated by her to have been entrusted to the Appellant, the right and title to which she contended she had never parted with. The personal property sought to be recovered from the Appellant consisted of Government securities, known as Companys paper, to a very large amount, together with money, jewels, and other personality, also of very considerable value. The real estate which she [@ page

M.I.A. 553] sought to recover from the Appellant in the suit comprised certain shares in two gardens, named Dum-Dum and Narain Mundul, which were in the possession of the Appellant, Jodonath Bose, and one Mirtunjoy Bose, a Defendant in the Court below, but who had not appealed, having been, as the Respondent alleged, acquired by them by means of a fictitious sale, and not bona fide, and held by them Benamee, or in trust for the Appellant. The second suit, which constituted the third of these appeals, was instituted by the Appellant against the Respondent, who had withdrawn from his House and protection; and was in the nature of a suit for restitution of conjugal rights. The third suit was brought by the Respondent against the Appellant to recover a single Companys paper.

The general facts were as follows —In the month of Bysack, 1254, B.E., corresponding with the months of April and May, 1847, C.E., the Appellant inter-married with the Respondent, then a Widow, according to the laws and usages of the Mahomedans, and by the form or ceremony called " Nikah." The Respondent was the Mother of five children (two Sons and [@ page M.I.A. 554] three Daughters) by her first Husband, who had died about six months previous to her second marriage. Soon after the marriage, the Respondent, with her children, took up their residence at the House of the Appellant, at Sealdah, in-the suburbs of Calcutta. At the time of her marriage with the Appellant, the Respondent was in possession of considerable property, both real and personal, which she had inherited from her Father, Moonshee Hossain Ally, who died in 1837, leaving the Respondent, his Daughter, her Mother, and two other Widows, and a Nephew, who were, by Mahomedan Law, his heirs. Litigation had taken place between the Respondent and some of the co-heirs, and part of her property was the result of such litigation, as well as other portions which had accrued to her by right of succession to her Fathers deceased heirs and her own co-heirs. From the time of her marriage to the year 1855, the Appellant and Respondent lived and cohabited together as Husband and Wife, during which time she bore him a Daughter. Very serious dissensions, however, having arisen in that year between them, occasioned chiefly by the Appellants dealings with her property, the alleged cause of his ill-treatment of her, the Respondent presented a petition, to the Magistrate of the Zillah for protection, and obtained an Order from him, giving her the option to live where she chose, but declaring that she was not , hereby separated from her position as the Wife of the Appellant; and, to prevent the commission of any acts that might lead to an affray, the Appellant was bound over, by recogniznce in Rs. 10,000, for a year, liberty being given to the Respondent to sue for having been beaten and confined by the Appellant.

[@ page M.I.A. 555] In consequence of these proceedings, the Respondent filed a plaint in the first suit on the 8th of April, 1856, in the Court of