Adarsh Kumar Goel, J. - This appeal has been preferred by the defendants against decree for declaration granted in favour of plaintiff-respondent to the effect that the plaintiff was owner in possession of the suit land.

2. Case of the respondent-plaintiff is that his mother Smt. Parmeshwari was owner in possession of the suit land and after her death, he was her only legal heir.

3. The defendants contested the suit denying that plaintiffs predecessor Smt. Parmeshwari was owner in possession of the suit land. It was stated that on 12.10.1954, a mutation was sanctioned in favour of the defendants with the consent of Smt. Parmeshwari herself and thereafter defendants continued in possession as owners. It was also stated that Smt. Parmeshwari inherited the suit land from her father Baru which was to be operative till her marriage and on her marriage in the year 1954 title of the suit land reverted to the defendants who were her collaterals. The defendants pleaded that there was custom by which a female daughter was diverted of her inheritance in the ancestral property on marriage.

4. Main question before the court was whether the suit land was ancestral and under the custom Sm