Mr. Ameer Ali :—

This is an appeal from a judgment and decree of the Chief Court of the Punjab, dated the 17th of July 1909, and the dispute relates to the property of one Daula, a Jat by origin who migrated from Bikanir many years ago and settled in the Ferozepore District. He died in April 1902, leaving a large family of sons and grandsons and considerable landed property.

The following pedigree will explain the relative position of the contesting parties in the present litigation :-

In 1884 Daula had executed a will, which was duly registered at the time, under which his surviving sons and a grandson, Ram Sukh, whose father Pura had died, were to take his properties substantially in equal shares.

In January 1898 he revoked his former will and made another, which also was registered, by which, excluding Chetan and Tulsa, he left his property in six equal shares to his four other surviving sons and to Ram Sukh, the son of Pura, and to Bhinja and Lekh Ram, the two sons of Asa, who had died in the meantime.

On Daula's death there were the, usual mutation proceedings for the registration of the names of his successors in the Collector's Register, in the course of which the devisees under