Judgment :-

G.S. Singhvi, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The appellants are aggrieved by the order of the learned Single Judge of the Bombay High Court, Goa Bench whereby he allowed the writ petition filed by respondent Nos. 1 and 2 and granted their prayer for striking off the additional written statement filed by the appellants after their impleadment as legal representatives of defendant No.2 - Abdul Razak.

3. Respondent Nos. 1 and 2 filed suit in the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Panaji (hereinafter described as `the trial Court) for declaring them as lawful tenants of suit premises and also for restraining the defendants – Suresh D. Naik (respondent No.3 herein) and Abdul Razak, who died during the pendency of the suit and is being represented by his legal representatives (appellants herein) to remove the lock allegedly put by respondent No.3 on the suit premises along with materials dumped there. An alternative prayer made by respondent Nos. 1 and 2 was for recovery of possession of suit premises in case it was held that they had already been dispossessed. The substance of the case set up by respondent Nos. 1 and 2 before the trial Court is that the suit premises were let out to their predecessor Shri Rajaram D. Wagle in 1951 by one Jussab Abdul Karim at a monthly rent of Rs.15/- which was subsequently increased to Rs.25/-; that the owner-cum-landlord sold the premises to Abdul Kadar Haji Jaffar (grandfather of appellant Nos.2, 3, 4 and 6); that Rajaram D. Wagle died on 29.4.1981 and after his death they have been using the suit premises for parking their cars; that on 5.1.1992, respondent No.3 broke open the lock of the suit premises and dumped his goods i.e., boxes of liquor bottles, but the same were removed by the police on a complaint made by respondent No.1 in that regard; that on 8.1.1992, respondent No. 3 again broke open the lock and forcibly occupied the suit premises and this time the police did not act on the complaint made by them.

4. In his written statement, respondent No.3 not only denied the averments contained in the plaint that he had illegally taken possession of the suit premises after breaking open the locks put by respondent Nos. 1 and 2, but also pleaded that after being forced to leave Kuwait in the wake of war, he came to India and is doing business of distribution of liquor in the suit premises on the basis of permission accorded by defendant No.2 -Abdul Razak, who was a family friend. Respondent No.3 further pleaded that the competent authority granted him excise licence after being satisfied that the suit premises were suitable for doing business in liquor.

5. Abdul Razak (predecessor of the appellants) filed a separate written statement. He largely denied the averments contained in the plaint and pleaded that much before his death, Shri Rajaram D. Wagle had voluntarily surrendered the suit premises and thereafter, respondent No.3 was allowed to occupy the same for conducting business of distribution of liquor.

6. Abdul Razak died during the pendency of the suit. Thereupon, respondent Nos. 1 and 2 filed an application for impleading his widow (appellant No.1), son and three daughters (appellant Nos. 2, 3 4 and 6) and two son-in-laws (appellant Nos. 5 and 7) in place of the deceased. Appellant Nos. 3, 4 and 6 objected to the impleadment of the son-in-laws by stating that they are non-Goans and are not governed by personal law relating to properties in Goa. They also objected to the impleadment of appellant Nos. 1 and 3 i.e., the widow and son of the deceased on the ground that the suit premises had been allotted to them in the inventory proceedings.

7. By order dated 10.12.2003, the learned trial Court overruled all the objections raised by appellant Nos. 3, 4 and 6 and allowed the application of respondent Nos. 1 and 2 by observing that joining of the widow, son and son-in-laws of the deceased will not prejudice the daughters and they will be entitled to take defence suitable to their plea.