Chandreshwar Singh And Ors. vs Ramchandra Singh And Ors. on 24 August, 1972
23. It appears from the evidence of D. Ws. 32 and 40 that there are various Tolas in village Ramdiri. According to D. W. 32 Kara Singh died at Ramdiri in Jaitpur Diara whereas according to D. W. 40 he died in Kita Salah Rosaria in village Ramdiri. In my opinion, these are minor discrepancies in evidence, which cannot be taken advantage of by the appellants and that is no reason to disbelieve that Karu Singh died at Ramdiri on the date mentioned in the death register (Ext. C-1). The contention of learned counsel that it was not within the jurisdiction of D. W. 32 to report about the death of Kara Singh is also not of much consequence. It was further commented that the death took place on the 17th June, 1941, whereas it was reported on the 26th June, 1941, about 8 days after the death and that the death register was forged and inadmissible. Reference may be made to Manickchand v. Bhagwan Das, AIR 1964 Pat 353 Where Mahapatra and Tarkeshwar Nath, JJ., while dealing with the question with regard to the entry of birth made in the register, observed at page 355 that it was true that the information was not given within eight days of the birth, but, on that account, it could not be held that the entries were not admissible, inasmuch as those entries could safely come within the purview of Section 35 of the Evidence Act. The birth register was maintained by a public servant in the discharge of his official duty and it could not be ignored. In my opinion, there is no material on the record to establish that the death register (Ext. C-l) was a forged one As against above evidence, which was adduced on behalf of defendant No. 6, the plaintiffs examined Babu Badan Singh (P. W. 4), Akal Singh (P. W. 8) and Ram Chandra Singh (P. W. 18) whereas defendants 1 to 3 examined Harihar Mahto (D. W. 8) and Fauzdari Singh (D. W. 24) in order to establish that Karu died before the 1937 Act came into force. P. W. 4 Was examined on 28-5-1962. He stated in paragraph 3 of his evidence that Karu died 28 or 30 years ago, which would correspond to 1932 or 1934. Similar is the evidence of the other witnesses. On behalf of the plaintiffs and defendants 1 to 3 no documentary evidence was filed. In view of Ext. C-1 discussed above, I find that the evidence adduced on behalf of defendant No. 6 with regard to the year of death of Karu is far superior to those of the plaintiffs and defendants 1 to 3. In my view, therefore the court below his rightly held in paragraph 31 of its judgment that Karu Singh died on the 17th June, 1941, and I find no reason to differ from this finding. It may be stated here that in the last sentence of that paragraph the court below by mistake has written 17-4-41 being the date of death of Karu Singh, instead of 17-6-41.