Harbans Singh, J.

1. These two appeals (L. P. A. No. 232 of 1961 and L. P. A. No. 59 of 1962) under clause 10 of the Letters Patent have been referred to a the Full Bench by the Letters Patent Bench presided over by my Lord the Chief Justice Bench presided over by my Lord the Chief Justice. In one of these appeals, names. Joginder Singh V/s. Kehar Singh and others the male proprietor and gifted his land and the validity of the gift was challenged by the reversioner by filing the usual declaratory suit out of which this appeal has arisen. The allegation sin the plaint were that ht eland was ancestral and the parties were governed by custom. In other appeal, Inder Singh V/s. Jagir Singh the male proprietor has made a sale and the same saw also challenged on similarly grounds. Both the gifts and the sale were made after the enforcement of the Hindu Succession Act 1956. In both the cases the land was found to be ancestral and the sale was found to be without legal necessity.

The main defence taken on behalf of the defendants in both the cases was that by virtue of the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act the limitation on the powers of alienation of a male proprietor had ceas