Sir Lancelot Sanderson. -

This is an appeal by the defendants in the suit against a decree of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, dated 6th July 1926, whereby a decree of the Subordinate Judge of Ghazipur, dated 7th April 1923, was modified.

The suit was brought on 2nd March, 1922 by the plaintiffs, the minor sons of one Sat Narain Pande, who died in 1915, by their mother, Mt. Narain Kunwar, their certificated guardian, against the defendants, to recover possession of the property specified in the plaint, viz., mauza Kanauli and mauza Sikandra, and for a declaration that a certain sale-deed dated 21st July 1908, purporting to have been executed by Sat Narain Pande, the father of the plaintiffs, in favour of one Misri Lal, the ancestor of the defendants, was invalid.

It was alleged by the plaintiffs that their father was a notorious debauchee and had squandered the joint family property in meeting the expenses of his debauchery and immoral habits; that the above-mentioned sale-deed was executed without any valid necessity and any legal antecedent debt and without any consideration by inserting wrong and fictitious debts and necessities therein.

The defence was to the effect that