Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

7. In the interregnum, Ramanna Shetty's son, who was the husband of the 1st defendant, had filed an application seeking for conferment of occupancy rights on the ground that he was a tenant of the suit property. However, the said application had been rejected by the Land Tribunal. Thus, the defendant's husband was laying a claim on the suit property, not as the legal heir of Ramanna Shetty, but as the tenant of Ramanna Shetty.

8. This suit was contested by the defendants. The defendants admitted the execution of the partition dated 05.01.1953 and the life interest created in favour of Ramanna Shetty. They, however, contended that on the enactment of the 1956 Act, the life interest created in favour of Ramanna Shetty would not devolve under the 1949 Act and revert back to the kutumba, but would devolve under the 1956 Act to Sadananda Shetty, the only son of Ramanna Shetty i.e., the husband of defendant No.1 and father of defendants 2 to 4.

iii) The life interest created over the suit properties under the partition in favour of Ramanna Shetty would enlarge into an absolute estate and the same devolve on the legal heirs of Ramanna Shetty and they would thus become the absolute owners of the same.

iv) The plaintiffs right of reversion was only a right of expectation and not a legal right and hence could not be enforced;

v) The suit for possession was barred by limitation.

vi) ANIL KUMAR NEOTIA & OTHERS Vs. UNION OF INDIA & OTHERS - (1988) 2 SCC 587;

vii) LAXMI & OTHERS Vs. SEETHAMMA & OTHERS - AIR 1994 KAR 368.

16. On the contrary, learned counsel for the contesting respondents contended that in view of the Division Bench ruling of this Court in Rathnavati's case referred to supra, the contention that the interest over the properties would devolve as per the 1956 Act was untenable and the suit would have to be decreed in the light of the admitted fact that only a life interest had been granted to predecessor of defendants 1 to 4.

30. Sub-section (4) stipulates that life interest of nissanthathi kavaru in the properties allotted to it at a partition would become absolute, if the kutumba ceases to have among its members a female who has not completed the age of fifty years or if all the kavarus into which the kutumba broke up, whether at the same or at the subsequent partition, becomes nissanthathi kavarus.

31. Sub-section (5) governs the right of the members to whom the properties are allotted at a partition. The said provision states that the properties allotted to a nissanthathi kavaru at a partition in which it had only a life interest shall devolve upon the kutumba or where the kutumba has broken up into a number of kavarus, upon the nearest santhathi kavaru.