TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1927 (7) TMI 8
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.... to a collateral male relative. That relative was a stepbrother named Gurbakhsh Singh, who is the present appellant. If, however, a posthumous son was born, then that posthumous son would, of course, succeed, the household would be kept together, and Gurbakhsh, the step-brother, would have no rights. 5. The story of this litigation, and of various other proceedings, partly legal and partly administrative, which preceded it, hangs upon the question whether such a posthumous son ever was born. It appears clear that a possible attempt to procure a spurious son was in the minds of all parties from the moment of Jawala's death, or even before that. He died on the 19th August 1915. 6. The appellant mintains that no such posthumous son "was born. Almost immediately after the death he proceeded to raise the question. Simultaneously, or almost simultaneously, Bhagwan, the younger widow, disappeared. 7. Every day was of importance for the defeat of a plot, if plot there was, and for the immediate discovery of the truth. There seems to be little doubt that dissatisfaction arose as to the delay of the patwari of the village in taking action. It is a fact that the death having occu....
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....not procure a spurious son, If she procured a son some where or is trying to procure a son, we do not accept him. It is, therefore, prayed that local enquiry may be got made by a tahsildar and relief granted. 11. This challenge should, as was meant, have brought matters to a head. The request made was reasonable. The condition of Bhagwan was the critical and conclusive fact in the case. Without any doubt whatsoever she should have appeared, if her case was true; her condition of advanced pregnancy would have been plainly enough established in the course of that enquiry. She did not so appear. The proceedings were delayed. The Deputy Commissioner, on the 13th October, demanded to know what had become of the matter. 12. Meantime events ripened, or were alleged by the elder widow to have ripened, by the alleged birth of a son to Bhagwan in a remote village of an adjoining native state. 13. Gurbakhsh at once took action, and on the 21st October, another application was made to the Collector, which narrated as follows: After his death Mt. Bhagwan Kaur, in order to prejudice my rights, gave out, in consultation with the village patwari, that she was pregnan....
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....ieve a word of the story as to the object of the journey, or as to the absentee widow having borne a son, 21. The Board does not go into the details further than to say that it is satisfied with the interpretation put upon them by the Subordinate Judge. They think it true to say firstly, that the suggestion of an apprehended change from a girl to a boy is without any foundation whatsoever. Secondly, the deliberate removal from her home and even from the home of her own parents to these two different places in a foreign state was effected with the object of destroying traces of her whereabouts, of making it practically impassible compulsorily to secure her medical examination, of making it possible to lay a foundation for the fraud of obtaining a spurious son and of maintaining thereafter that in this remote place she herself had given birth to it. Their Lordships, in short, agree, on the whole of that part of the case, with the views of the Subordinate Judge. 22. One or two points, however, may be stated in addition. It was argued that the statement as to pregnancy attributed to Bachittar Singh was interpolated by the patwari in the original record of the death of Jawala Sing....
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....venting the possibility of any medical examination of her after such a long period throwing light upon the question of the birth of a child by her in October. The Assistant Collector, however, heard her, and he was in no way moved by her evidence. "The statement," says he, "of Mt. Bhagwan Kaur has been taken down. Even after hearing her I see no reason to alter my first view." 27. Further proceedings took place in the revenue Courts, and then this civil suit followed. As already indicated, their Lordships see no reason to doubt either the great carefulness of the investigation made by the Subordinate Judge, or the soundness of the conclusions at which he arrived. The disappearance of Bhagwan, and the manifest approval of the co-widow, the refusal by her to come to the Court to submit to a medical examination, or even to remain for a reasonable period in her own old home, but in preference to go outside the jurisdiction of the Court and into a native state, would in any view have thrown the greatest doubt upon the story of her having given birth to a son as alleged; and then the second feature of the case - her continued absence for a long period after the alleged birth - the who....