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PETITIONER: THAKUR GOKALCHAND
Vs.
RESPONDENT: PARVIN KUMARI.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 16/05/1952
BENCH: FAZAL ALI, SAIYID BENCH: FAZAL ALI, SAIYID BOSE, VIVIAN
CITATION: 1952 AIR 231 1952 SCR 825 CITATOR INFO : R 1971 SC1398 (6) RF 1991 SC1654 (15,35)
ACT: Punjab custom--Principles to be observed in dealing with customary law stated--Essentials of valid custom.
HEADNOTE: The plaintiff, a Rajput belonging to Tehsil Garhshankar in the District of Hoshiarpur (Punjab), instituted a suit against the defendant for the recovery of the properties which belonged to a deceased Gurkha woman R and which she had acquired by way of gift from a stranger, alleging that he was the lawfully wedded husband of Rand that accord- ing to custom which applied to the parties with regard to succession he was entitled to succeed to the moveable and immoveable properties of R in preference to the defendant who was his daughter by R. Held, that even if it be assumed that R was lawfully married to the plaintiff, the question to be decided would be whether succession to property which R had received as a gilt from a stranger and which she owned in her own right would be governed by the custom governing her husband’s family and not her own. Such marriage as was alleged to have been contracted by the plaintiff being evidently an act of rare occurrence, the r...