Judgement

Appeal by special leave from a decree of the High Court (Aug. 21, 1896) affirming a decree of the District Judge of Bankura (Dec. 28, 1891) and dismissing the appellants suit.

The suit was brought against the respondent Satrughan and others to recover in ejectment, alleging that the Raj in suit was an ancestral, joint, impartible estate called Dhalboom, which, according to (a) the Mitakshara law, (b) Regulation X. of 1800, (d) the local custom, and (d) the family custom, descended, failing a son of the last Raja Ram Chunder Dhal III., to the nearest and eldest of the heirs, and contending that Nityanund, the plaintiff, was such nearest heir and was entitled to the said estate.

The respondent pleaded—

(1.) That by family usage and local custom, the property of the family descended by the rule of lineal primogeniture.

(2.) That in the said family it was a custom that the eldest son of the Raja for the time being got the title of Jubaraj, or Chota Raja. The second son got the title of Hikim, the third that of Bara Thakoor, the fourth that of Koer, the fifth that of Moosib, and all the rest took the title of Babu, and that the descendants of each took in succession by the rul