Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- The principal appeal, C.A. 2303 of 1968, has arrived in this Court by certificate, under Art. 133 (1) (a) of the Constitution, granted by the High Court of Delhi. (The other, C.A. 2248 of 1968 has been extinguished by efflux of time and even otherwise is not pressed, since counsel concedes the decision to be just).

2. The subject matter is large, the grounds of litigation many, the arguments long and yet the issues of law and disputes of fact are few although their ultimate decision where justice and law have, we think, come to cordial terms, has been reached after uneasy hours but with an easy conscience. Hopefully we avoid burdening the judgment with heavy historical material much of which has been wisely jettisoned to help turn the forensic focus on the three-pronged attack on the decree made by counsel for the appellant Shri. S. T. Desai.

3. Even so, the sequence and significance of events leading up to the current controversy, sprawling across India and Pakistan and surviving for nearly three decades now, may be unfolded with advantage. Now to the story. Lahore was the venue of the earlier forensic episodes. The legal saga formally began in undivided I