Judgement

Appeal (No. 86 of 1929) from a decree of the High Court (February 1, 1927) reversing a decree of the Subordinate Judge of Bijnor at Moradabad (December 15, 1923).

The appeal related to the right to inherit the property of Ghiyas-ud-din, a Sunni Mahomedan of the Hanafi school, who died in 1920.

The suit was brought by the appellants, the brother and sister of the deceased, the principal defendants being respondent No. 1, who claimed to be the wife of the deceased, and respondents Nos. 2 to 6, her children by the deceased. The appellants contended that the marriage, .alleged to have taken place in August, 1905, was invalid in that the respondent No. 1 had a husband then living, and that in any case it had been validly dissolved by the deceased in September, 1905.

The trial judge made a decree for the appellants, but upon appeal to the High Court (Dalai and Pullan JJ.) it was reversed and the suit dismissed.

The material facts and the grounds of the above decisions appear from the judgment of the Judicial Committee.

Early in the opening of the present appeal counsel were directed to confine their arguments in the first instance to the question whether the deceased had effect