1885 (1) TMI 1

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..... plaintiff, and that, under those circumstances, defendant was under no legal obligation to support the plaintiff. 2. It has been urged before us that the question, whether defendant had inherited property liable for plaintiff's maintenance, was dealt with in such an unsatisfactory manner by the Assistant Judge, that we ought not to accept his finding. It was objected that the opinion ex pressed, by the Assistant Judge, that the entries in the defendant's books did not represent actual entries of interest, was a mere assumption, and not based upon any evidence; and, further, that he had not appreciated the evidence afforded by the defendant's account in the books of his sister, which shows that sums were paid in by defendant .....

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..... concludes that it is only in the former class of cases that, independently of the existence of family property, a legal obligation exists. 4. This view of the Hindu texts has been fully discussed by the learned authors of West and Buhler's Treatise on Hindu Law Page 230 (3rd ed) and the opinion has indeed been expressed that undue importance had been given to the above distinction relied on by Sir Michael Westropp. They say, p. 240 : Whatever precept of the Smritis, therefore, bad been violated to the injury of a complainant, whether expresse in terms hortative or prohibitory, and whether a penalty was annexed to the rule or not, the alleged injury might, if the prince or the judges so willed, be remedied or punished without an ' .....

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..... nd, lastly, a text in the Mitakshara on the Subtraction of Gift, ch. X, fol. 69, p 1, pl. 1, referred to by Mr. Strange in his Manual of Hindu Law, which says: Where there may be no property, but what is self-acquired, the only person whose maintenance out of such property is imperative are aged parents, wife, and minor children. 7. It is said that the word mata, and mata pitrau, which are the Sanskrit words used in these texts for mother and parents, include a step-mother. That mata may in certain oases be construed as meaning stop-mother, would appear from the contention of Balambhatta mentioned in West and Buhler, 471, and also from the discussion of the term matrau'' in the texts of Vyasa and Vrihaspati at p. 244 of the Di .....

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