1913 (5) TMI 3

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....he properties originally belonging to the family were the subject of a division by a family arrangement made and acted upon in 1895 during the lifetime of the father of the plaintiffs, and that thenceforward the properties ceased to be held jointly, and that those properties of which the defendants are in possession came to them under that family arrangement and became and still remain their separate property. 2. The principal subject of dispute is village property. But the suit relates also to certain other property, as to which different considerations arise. It will be convenient in the first instance to determine the questions in issue so far as they relate to the village property only and to consider subsequently the effect of the f....

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.... characteristic that it was intended to speak from the date, at which it was written, and not from a future date, namely, the death of the writer. It was, in fact, and was intended to be viewed as, a record of a family arrangement then and there made and carried into effect partitioning the family estate among those interested. Indeed, in anticipation of this formal partitioning, the sons had been put into possession of their shares some two months previously. All this appears from the concluding passage of the document, which reads as follows: "All the three sons were put in separate possession of the estate in the beginning of the year 1303 Fasli" (September, 1895). "I have no other heir having a right besides those mentioned in this will....

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....ch a partition could not have been made by Balwant Singh by will strictly so called. But, as has been already pointed out, the document is much more than a will (if indeed it is in any sense a will at all), for it describes and witnesses to a family arrangement contemporaneously made and acted on by all parties. Every one treated it as such at the time. The mutations of names shew this beyond controversy. There is nothing, therefore, in the fact that the document is called a will which invalidates the partition, which was undoubtedly made in fact, and which was acted on by all parties for ten years without any dispute or misunderstanding as to their respective rights under it. 10. Counsel for the plaintiffs have endeavoured to support th....