75. The defendants having failed to establish the
Will, the question of this Court comparing signatures of
R.N.Mallikarjunaiah with other documents will not arise
as no admitted documents produced in evidence to
enable this court to compare his signature under Section
158 OS.3151/2004
73 of Evidence Act. Moreover, it is well settled that, the
Court should be slow to base its finding solely on
comparison made by it. The decision in B.Manjunatha
Prabhu's case (supra) relied upon by learned counsel for
the defendants, is not applicable to the facts of the case
on hand since the defendants failed to establish that
Ex.D.5 - Will is in the handwriting of
R.N.Mallikarjunaiah.
The defendant
No.1 has not entered the witness box to explain as to his
own source of income to purchase Schedule 'A' property ,
out of his own income. In this suit, the 1 st defendant
though on record, has failed to enter witness box to
substantiate that 'A' Schedule property is his self acquired
property. The fact whether the said property is self
acquired property or purchased by R.N.Mallikarjunaiah in
the name of 1st defendant was within his special
knowledge and had the 1st defendant entered witness
box, the plaintiff would have elicited whether suit 'A'
Schedule property was purchased out of his own income.
95 OS.3151/2004
Consequently, the suit being one for partition, the
plaintiff need not seek any relief to set aside the sale deed
as seeking partition of the property is sufficient as per
judgment of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka in ILR
1998 KAR 2127 (Vadde Sanna Hulugappa and others v.
Vadde Sanna Hulugappa, deceased), wherein, it is held
that, 'it has been laid down by this Court in Ganapathi
Santharam Bosle and another v. Ramachandra Subba Rao
Kulkarni and others, that, in a suit for partition by Hindu
Coparcener, it is not necessary to seek setting aside of
alienation and it is sufficient to seek his share and
possession with declaration that he is not bound by the
alienations.'
Thus, the concept of
survivorship having given gobye as per the Hindu
Succession Act, 2005, as per the judgment of Hon'ble
High Court of Karnataka reported in 2010(2) KCCR 1249
(DB) (Pushpalatha.N.V. v. V.Padma and others), the
plaintiff though born prior to coming into force of Hindu
Succession Act, 1956 and though married prior to 1956
(1952), her status of coparcener would not change. In
107 OS.3151/2004
this regard, the argument of learned counsel for the
defendants that the properties were acquired subsequent
to marriage of the plaintiff and therefore, she has no right
in the property, cannot be accepted. The properties
fallen to the share of 1st defendant and his father
R.N.Mallikarjunaiah were ancestral properties and before
partition in the year 1964, the plaintiff was very much
available in the joint family of R.N.Mallikarjunaiah and
his brothers and when she has acquired her right in the
property by birth, her marriage in the year 1952 or her
birth prior to 1956 would not change her status as
coparcener of the family with respect to properties
acquired by her father in a partition.
In (2006) 2 KCCR 993 (Patrick Rebellow and others v.
Victor Rebellow and others), the Honb'le High Court of
Kranataka has held that, 'mere fact that the Will is
117 OS.3151/2004
registered Will not by itself be sufficient to dispel all
suspicions regarding it.'
This goes to show that the defendants have not
complied the requirements of Section 69 of Evidence Act.
The evidence of DW5 will not help the defendants to
comply the requirements of Section 69 of Evidence Act.
72. Consequently, the defendant No.3, 4 and 6
have not acquired any valid title in the respective
properties mentioned in the Will. Moreover, as I already
stated that as per the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court
in K.Lakshmanan's case (supra), the Will shall satisfy the
conscience of the Court regarding its execution and in
this case, there is no satisfactory evidence to show as to
why the parents of plaintiff shall disinherit their own
daughter from getting any property though they had
good number of properties. Moreover, the defendants
153 OS.3151/2004
have not clarified as to when the attesting witnesses to
both the Will expired and no death certificates produced
to establish that the attesting witnesses and scribe of
Ex.D.5 have died. Though there is no crossexamination
in this regard by the counsel for the plaintiff, but it being
incumbent upon the defendants to prove both the Wills
by examining atleast one attesting witness as required
under Section 68 of Evidence Act and said requirement
has not been complied to the satisfaction of this Court.