These are consolidated appeals from a judgment and decree of the Chief Court of Oudh, dated the 12th January, 1943, which modified a decree of the said Court in its Original Civil Jurisdiction, dated the 30th October, 1937. Sardar Nawazish Ali Khan will be referred to hereinafter as “the Appellant,” and Sardar Ali Raza Khan as “the Respondent”.

The family to which the parties belong are Shiah Mohammadans of the Ashna Ashari Sect governed by the Imamia law.

The litigation which led up to these appeals arose out of the Wills of Nawab Sir Nawazish Ali Khan and Nawab Nasir Ali Khan, who were related to the parties to these appeals as shown in the pedigree following:-

The estates, the title to which is contested in these appeals, are first an estate in Oudh (hereinafter called "the Oudh estate") known as the Nawabganj Aliabad estate in the Rabranch District which was granted to Nawab Ali Raza Khan, and was shown as No. 151 in List I of the lists in the Schedule to the Oudh Estates Act, 1869, and No. 39 in List V, so that under section 8 of that Act, the intestate succession was regulated by the rule of primogeniture, and in accordance with the scheme laid down in section