JUDGMENT

Martineau, J. - The dispute in this case is as to the right of succesion to the estate left by Muhammad Din, an Arain of Mauza Nawankote in the Lahore District. His land was mutated in favour of Amir, his mother's father's brother. Amir has died and the present defendant in his son. The plaintiff, who lays claim to the estate, is the deceased Muhammad Din's half-sister', their father having had two wives, one of whom, Talia Bibi, was the mother of Muhammad Din, and the othar the mother of the plaintiff. The First Court found for the plaintiff, but the District Judge on appeal has dismissed the suit. The plaintiff has obtained a certificate from the District Judge on the question of custom and has filed a second appeal.

2. I heard the appeal ex parte and decided it in favonr of the appellant, but on the respondent's application set aside the exparta decree and have heard the arguments of counsel on his behalf, That a sister has a right of successsion by the custom of Arains of the Lahore District is established by the entry in the rewaj-i-am, which is supported by several instances and also by several judicial decisions which are mentioned in the first Court's judgment. It was in fact not disputed in the lower appellate Court that the plaintiff would have been entitled to succeed to the estate if she had been Muhammad Din's full sister. The learned District Judga has held that the plaintiff is not entitled to succeed because the land has not descended from an ancestor common to the plaintiff and Muhammad Din, that is to say, did not descend to Muhammad Din, from his father but was inherited by him from his mother who was only a step-mother of the plaintiff. It appears to me however that the fact that the land descended to Muhammad Din from his mother and not from his father is immaterial. Counsel for the respondents has referred to p. 61 of Roa and Rattigan's Tribal Law in the Punjab and to Lehna v. Thakri (1895) 32 P R 1895 and other rulings in which the principle has been laid down that when the succession of a daughter is allowed she acts merely as a conduit to pass on the property to her sons and their descendants, and that when her male issue fail the land will revert to her father's agnates. Put in the first place the very fact that it was conceded in the lower appellate Court that the plaintiff would have been entitled to succeed if she had been Muham-nad Din's full si3tar shows, that the general principle mentioned above is not fully applicable in the presant case. In the sacond place it appears to me that that principle, while it may apply to a case in which a daughter has succeeded for some special reason such as on account of her husband being a khana damad, is not applicable to.a case among tribes like Arains where the daughter's right of inheritance is recognized as being superior to that of collaterals. There is no question that Talia Bibi was the rightful heir of her father : for a suit brought against her by Amir for possession of the property, after her father's death, was dismissed. The learned District Judge admits that Talia Bibi had a more or less complete power of alienation and might have gifted the property to her husband, and his view on this point is in accordance with the answer to Question No. 64 in Bolster's Customary Law of Lahore District, in which it is stated that where daughters exclude agnates they have full rights of alienation.

3. I hold, therefore, that the rule of reversion, for which counsel for the respondent contends, does not apply in the present case. The only question is: Which of the parties is the heir to Muhammad Din, his half-sister or his mother's father's brother. The defendant has produced no evidence to show that a mother's father's brother has any right of succession. The plaintiff on the other hand, has given evidence of four instances in which a half-sister has inherited. Three of these are mentioned by the witnesses Nizam Din, Ohanan Din and Mehn Din, two of them be