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The technical sense of survivorship prevailing in Hindu Law : High Court of Calcutta

The words Survives and surviving have not been used in the technical sense of survivorship prevailing in Hindu law. The expression the “right to sue survives to the surviving plaintiff or plaintiffs alone or against the surviving dependent or dependent alone”, means that the right to sue is transmitted or passes to the plaintiff or plaintiffs alone or against the defendant or defendants alone who are already on the record by succession inheritance or otherwise, is upheld by the high court of Calcutta, by the learned bench of The Honourable Justice Subrata Talukdar, in the case of Dinabandhu Mondal and Others V. Jawed Shakti and Another, CO 780 of 2014.

 

FACTS

The petitioners are plaintiffs in Ejectment Suit No. 08 of 2007 and claim to be the trustees of Kumar Promothonath Roy Public Charitable Trust (hereinafter referred to for short as the said Trust). The said Trust is the proprietor of the premises No. 4, Grant Street and 9, Lenin Sarani, Kolkata (for short the suit premises).

The object of the Trust is to do charitable works qua poor and needy persons. The opposite parties are the defendants in the suit and were inducted as tenants to the said premises. The tenancy having been determined by a notice to quit and vacate dated 21st August, 2006 and the defendants-tenants having failed and neglected to vacate the suit premises, the petitioners-plaintiffs filed Ejectment Suit No. 7 of 2008 (hereinafter referred to as the said suit).

JUDGEMENT

The court laid out that the words “survives” and “surviving” have not been used in R. 2 of O. 22 in the technical sense of survivorship prevailing in Hindu Law. The expression “the right to sue survives to the surviving plaintiff or plaintiffs alone, or against the surviving defendant or defendants along”, means that the right to sue is transmitted or passes to the plaintiff or plaintiffs alone or against the defendant or defendants alone who are already on the record by succession, inheritance or otherwise.” The Trial Court thereby decided to  proceed further with the hearing of Ejectment Suit No. 08 of 2007 by making an entry in the record of the death.

Judgement reviewed by Rani Banerjee