IMPORTANT POINTS
When the husband purchased property for the benefit of his wife and her name was entered in Municipal and Land Revenue records the wife would be the real owner of the property.
Evidence of wife alone cannot sustain adoption of her husband.

Judgment

Ranjan Gogoi, J.

1. The suit property comprises of land and building covered by holding No. L-395 on the Thana Lane within the Purulia Municipality, District Purulia, West Bengal.

2. The following genealogical table may be set out for ready reference and clarity of the facts that will be required to be noticed.

     Jagannath Joshi  =       Moni Debi

 (Died October 1953)     (Died August 1963)

       ¦        ¦

      Brijlal Shewda = Gomati Debi  Sitaram Joshi       =      Kishori Debi Joshi

     (Daughter)   (adopted son-1942)     (Original plaintiff)

     (Died 1967)    (Died 1946)       (Married to Sitaram in 1945)

     (Since deceased)

     ¦        ¦

    Rajendra Pd. Shewda Om Prakash Sharma @ Joshi

  (allegedly adopted son)   (adopted son)

      (Respondent No.1)   (Petitioner No.1)

3. According to the original plaintiff, Kishori Debi Joshi, (since deceased), the suit property was purchased by Jagannath Joshi with his funds in the name of his wife Moni Debi. Moni Debi, according to the plaintiff, was the name lender though in the Municipal and Land Revenue records the name of Moni Debi was entered as the owner of the suit property. The said entries were a mere pretence. The plaintiff further pleaded that she is the wife of one Sitaram Joshi who was adopted by Jagannath Joshi and Moni Debi in the year 1942. After the marriage of Sitaram Joshi and the deceased plaintiff Kishori Debi Joshi in the year 1945, Sitaram Joshi died a few months later. According to the plaintiff, Jagannath Joshi the owner of the suit property died in the year 1953 and on his death, one half of the suit property devolved on his wife Moni Debi and the remaining half on the deceased plaintiff as the widow of the predeceased son. The plaintiff further pleaded that Moni Debi died in the year 1963 and on her death her half share in the suit property devolved on her daughter Gomati Debi. On the death of Gomati Debi in the year 1967 her half share in the property devolved on the original/deceased plaintiff Kishori Debi Joshi. Accordingly, the plaintiff became the absolute owner of the entire suit property. In this regard, the plaintiff further pleaded that respondent No.1 Rajendra Prasad Shewda who claimed to be the adopted son of Gomati Debi had no basis to make any such claim as no such adoption took place.

4. The defendant, in the written statement filed, disputed the claim of the plaintiff and asserted that though the suit property was purchased with the funds of Jagannath Joshi the said purchase was made for the benefit of Moni Debi in order to provide her with the necessary security in life as at that point of time a Hindu widow was not entitled to full ownership of property owned by a Hindu male following his death. The defendant also disputed the claim of the original plaintiff that Sitaram Joshi was the adopted son of Jagannath and Moni Debi and in this regard had asserted that there was no valid adoption, as claimed. According to the defendant on the death of Moni Debi in August 1963 the entire property devolved on her daughter Gomati Debi and upon the death of Gomati Debi the property devolved on the defendant No.1 Rajendra Prasad Shewda who was the adopted son of Gomati Debi. In this regard the defendant had also pleaded that a gift deed was executed by Gomati Debi during her life time in favour of her adopted son i.e. defendant No.1.

5. The learned trial court, on the evidence adduced before it, took the view that the property belonged to Jagannath and that the adoption of Sitaram Joshi, predeceased husband of the original plaintiff, was legal and valid. The learned trial court, therefore, held that on the death of Jagannath Joshi in 1953 the suit property devolved in equal proportions on Moni Debi and the original plaintiff who was the widow of the predeceased son. Thereafter, according to the learned trial court, on the death of Moni Debi her half share in the property devolved on Gomati Debi. The trial court further held that on th