Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

Sikander Jehan Begum and Khurshid Jehan Teleyawar Begum are the petitioners in the Writ Petition and the appellants in the Civil Appeal they are the legitimate sisters of Nawab Kamal Yar Jung who died on January 26, 1944. According to the petition, the said Nawab left behind him three legitimate wives and two legitimate sisters but no legitimate children. He had, however, a number of Khawases (concubines) and three illegitimate sons and an illegitimate daughter. These are respondents Nos. 6-9 in the Writ Petition. The said illegitimate children were the issues of respondent Nos. 10 & 11 who were the concubines of the Nawab. Respondent Nos. 6-11, however, claimed to be the legitimate heirs of the said Nawab because according to them, respondent Nos. 10 & 11 were the legitimate wives of the Nawab. A dispute as to succession to the estate of the said Nawab has given rise to the present controversy.

The two widows of the late Nawab then applied for and obtained a certificate from the High Court to prefer an appeal to this Court. On December 27, 1955, however, the said widows purported to compromise their dispute with the opponents and expressed a desire not to prosecute the appal before the Supreme Court any further. When the petitioners Sikander Jehan Begum and Khurshid Jehan Begum came to know about these developments, they immediately sent an application to this Court praying that their names should be transposed as appellants in the appeal pending before this Court, at the instance of the said two widows; in this application, they undertook to deposit the necessary security for costs as well as the printing charges. This application was, however, returned to the petitioners on the ground that it did not lie to this Court as the record had not been formally transmitted to it. Thereupon, the petitioners made a similar application before the High Court and the widows applied for permission to withdraw their appeal. Both the applications came on for hearing before the High Court on August 16, 1955. The High Court rejected the petitioners' application for transposition and allowed the widows' application granting them leave to withdraw their appeal. On August 8, 1955, the petitioners had made an independent application to the High Court for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against its judgment in the Writ Petition. This application was dismissed by the High Court on March 20, 1956. Petitioners then applied for special leave and special leave was granted to them. That is how Civil Appeal No. 279 of 1960 has come to this Court by special leave. Long before this appeal came here, the petitioners had filed a writ petition No. 197 of 1956. That in brief is the background of the dispute between the parties before us. It is common ground that our decision in the Writ Petition will govern the decision in the Civil Appeal. Indeed, as we have already indicated both the proceedings raise the same point of law.