A widowed daughter is entitled to claim maintenance out of the estate of the father in the hands of his heirs if she is unable to get any maintenance from her husband's family.

( 1 ) THIS appeal is by the defendant against an appellate judgment and decree affirming the decree of the trial Court.

( 2 ) THE respondent filed a suit for ejectment of the appellant who is his widowed sister from the suit, property on the ground of revocation of licence to use and occupy a portion of the disputed Property. The respondent's case, briefly. was that as the only son and legal heir he inherited the disputed property along with the other properties left by his father under the Dayatahaga School of Hindu Law who died intestate on 13-11-1936 to the exclusion of his widowed mother and married daughters including the present respondent who had no right of inheritance. The appellant after her husband's death with her two minor daughters was given shelter by him. in a portion of the disputed residential house left by the father. She was thus a lic-encee in respect of the portion of the house in her occupation but although she had no difficulty because of her daughters being educated and having sufficient income out of their employment she refused to vacate in spite of the revocation of licence.

( 3 ) THE appellant contested the suit and set up a plea of her right of residence and maintenance out of her father's property as destitute widowed daughter. She also pleaded an alternative case, namely, that after the passing of the Hindu Succession Act 1956 her mother's right of maintenance and residence in father's property ripened into an absolute estate and after her death in 1958 she was entitled to half share of such estate left by the mother.

( 4 ) THE trial Court, it appears, did not go into the alternative case but merely said that mother's right of residence was a personal right. It however rejected the other plea and decreed the plaintiff's suit on a finding that she was no better than a licencee and was liable to be e. iected. On appeal the alternative case does not appear to have been pressed at all and the first appellate Court on the other pleas took the view that although a widowed destitute daughter might be entitled to claim right of maintenance as a dependant of her father but on. the facts of this case the appellant had no such right and accordingly dismissed the appeal. The correctness of this decision is now challenged in the present appeal.

( 5 ) IT appears that the appellant's alternative case claiming half share in the property left by her mother by virtue of the provisions of Hindu Succession Act 1956 has not been raised in the form now put in either of the Courts below. So. at this stage, although pressed by Mr. Mukherjee on behalf of the appellant. I cannot allow that point to be argued. The only question, therefore, left to be decided is whether the appellant has a right of residence as a destitute widowed daughter in her father's property now in the hands of the respondent On the question whether a right of maintenance accrues to the widowed daughter under the Hindu Law the consensus of iudicial opinion seems to be in favour of the view that such a right does exist. In (1890) ILR 17 Cal 373, Kamini Dassee v. Chandra Pode Mondln and in Mokshada v. Nundoolal. (1901) ILR 28 Cal 278. this Court has laid down that destitute widowed daughter is entitled to maintenance out of the property of her father in the hands of his heirs if she is unable to get any maintenance from her husband's familv. The same view has been expressed in a Full Bench decision by the Madras High Court in Ambubai Amal v. Sanibai Ammal, AIR 1940 Mad 804. that a widowed daughter is entitled to be maintained by her step-mother out of her father's estate. A contrary view, however, has been expressed by Bombay High Court in Bai Mangal v. Bai Ruk-mini. (1889) ILR 23 Bom 291.

( 6 ) THE first appellate Court did not apply the principle of the Special Bench decision of this Court in Moks-hada's case (supra) firstly, on the view that the widowed daughter in the instant case was not dependent at the time when her father di