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SRI RAM NIWAS TOD! AND ANR.
v.
BIBI JABRUNNISSA AND ORS.
AUGUST 6, 1996
[M.M. PUNCHHI, AND K. VENKATASWAMI, JJ.]
Mohammedan Law:
Gift-Oral gift-Plai11tiff-respo11de11t in possession of house property
alo11gwith land appwte11ant theretO-Oral gift of the property by father-in-law
of plai11tiff-Respondent i11 her [avow-There was also a written but not
registered gift deed-Held, it could 1101 be said that in presence of written gift
there was 110 oral gift-ft was followed by possession making the gift, complete
as was rightly held by the three coiuts below-High Court was right in
upholding the gift.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 2276 of
1987.
From the Judgment and Or<lcr dated 24.9.86 of the Patna High Court
in Appeal from Decree Nos. 596 & 597 of 1979.
H.K. Puri for the Appellants.
Mohd. Kazim Sher for P.S. Jha, for the Respondents.
The following Order of the Court was delivered :
Before the Trial Court it was admitted that the suit land measuring
41.5 decimals was homestead land and several houses of phoos (thatch)
and tiles were constructtd thereon, which were in occupation of the
plaintiff-respondent since long, even prior to the gift Ex. 1 executed in her
favour by her father-in- law. Since the parties were Mohamedans, an oral
G gift by a father- in-law to his daughter-in-law was permissible but here was
one which was written but not registered. It could not, in any event, be said
that in presence thereof there was no oral gift. Significantly, it was followed
by possession making the gift complete and that is the finding of all the
three courts below.
H
The debate before the High Court centered round the erroneous
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R.N. TOD!. v. BIBIJABRUNNISSA ·
315
premise that the gifted rroperty was agricultural land to which the A
provisions of the Bihar Tenancy Act, 1885 as also the Bihar Land Reforms
(Fixing of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act got attracted ..
Even so, taking into account those provisions, the High Court came to the
conclusion that the oral gift made by a Mohamedan would prevail over the
provisions in the tenancy laws, which required occupancy rights to be B
transferred by means of a registered deed. We think that it was unnecessary
for the High Court entering into such controversy and putting the tenancy
laws at a disadvantage over Muslim personal law. Once it stood established
that the property in dispute was house-property, which included open
spaces of land appurtenant and subservient thereto, to which the plaintiff-
rcspondcnt was put in possession after an oral gift in her favour, that per C
se should have been enough to keep her suit decreed rejecting the pleas
of the defendants-appellants that the gift as invalid, making the natural
heirs of the deceased owner claim it by inheritance.
In this view of the matter we affirm the orders of the High Court to
lhe extent to which we agree as to the validity of the gift on its own,
D
denuding its judgment of the discussion on the tenancy laws. The appeal
is accordingly dismissed. No costs.
R.P.
Appeal dismissed.
Lex