Judgement

Appeal (No. 153 of 1923) from a decree of the High Court (July 25, 1922) reversing a decree of the District Judge of Delhi.

The plaintiff-appellant, a minor, alleged by his plaint that as a member of a joint Hindu family he was joint owner and occupant of a house in Delhi, and in that capacity he claimed under the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913, s. 16, a right of pre-emption over an adjoining house "on account of easements and antiquity."

The defendants-respondents, who had purchased the house in question in 1914, pleaded that in 1913 the plaintiffs father, the managing member of the joint family, had been adjudicated an insolvent under the Presidency-towns Insolvency Act, 1909, and that thereupon the interest of the plaintiff in the joint family property vested in the official assignee, and the plaintiff ceased to have any right of pre-emption. The vendor was made a defendant, but did not contest the suit.

The facts appear from the judgment of the Judicial Committee.

The District Judge who tried the suit made a decree allowing the plaintiffs claim.

The High Court upon appeal made an order referring to a Full Bench the question Does an order of adjudication against a father