Legitimacy conferred by law does not grant rights to property of others beyond the parents, reaffirming the need for inclusive consideration of all coparceners in partition cases.

JUDGMENT :

(Goutam Bhaduri, J.) :

1. The instant appeal is against the judgment and decree dated 29.01.2022 passed by the learned Ist Additional District Judge, Bilaspur (C.G) in Civil Suit No.22-A/2017 in favour of the respondents/plaintiffs in respect of property situated at Juna Bilaspur and the lands situated at village Ranigaon, Sub-Tahsil Ratanpur, Tahsil Kota and Mouja Sirgitti Bilaspur whereby the decree is passed for partition and possession to the extent of 1/13 to the plaintiff Shankar Lal and other share-holders. The decree would not include the sale of lands made by Bhagwan Deen, Surja Bai and Pritamlal Loniya in respect of Khasra Nos. 500, 501 & 601 situated at Juna Bilaspur. In sum and substance, by judgment and decree the plaintiff and defendants have been held to be to be entitled to partition and possession to the extent of 1/13 in respect of the property situated at Juna Bilaspur as stated above and the land bearing Kh.No.1757 admeasuring 0.352 hectares situated at village Ranigaon Sub-Tahsil Ratanpur, Tahsil Kota and the property of Kh. No.811/1Dha, 811/16, 812/1ga, 813/1ga admeasuring 0.012 hectares.

2. The brief facts of the case are that Shankar Lal Loniya (since deceased) who is now represented by his legal representatives i.e., wife Smt. Sudha Singh Chauhan (R-1), son Sashram Singh Chauhan (R-2) and daughter Niyati Chauhan (R-3) filed a suit claiming partition, declaration of title and possession.

3. In order to understand the status of parties to the lis, the genealogical tree would be necessary which is reproduced hereinbelow :

4. The aforesaid family tree would show the death of Bhagwandeen, who is grand father of the plaintiffs and defendants, took place way back on 25.10.1976. Bhagwandeen married twice. Surja Bai was the first wife and Ganga Bai was the second wife. Both of them are dead. Surja Bai had a son namely Pritam Lal who was defendant no.1 in the suit. Pritamlal also died in 2014 during the pendency of the civil suit. His first wife Sita Devi who was defendant no.5 in the suit died in Sept. 2014 and second wife Kanti Devi who was defendant no.8 also died in Dec. 2020. Preetam Lal had 3 sons from first marriage namely Ramsanehi who was defendant no.2, Bharatlal (Defendant no.3) and Pawanlal (Defendant no.4) and 5 daughters of Pretam Lal from first marriage namely Saraswati, Shashi, Triveni Devi, Savitri Devi Smt.Madhu were also arrayed as defendants 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11 respectively. During the course of trial Smt. Madhu, defendant no.11 died, as such, her legal heirs Prahlad Singh Chauhan, Kartik Chouhan and Harshit Chouhan were brought on record as defendants 11-A, 11-B and 11-C respectively.

5. From second wife of Preetamlal namely Kanti Devi, son Shanker was born who was plaintiff and during the pendency of the suit he died thereby his legal heirs Smt. Sudha Singh (wife) Saksham Singh (son) and Niyati Chauhan (Daughter) were arrayed as Plaintiffs 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c) whereas daughters of Pritam Lal & Kanti Devi namely Smt. Santoshi Devi , Saroj Devi, Pratima Devi and Smt. Priti were arrayed