9911796707
TMI Blog1879 (3) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sa Begam had been married in her father's lifetime to Mir Jafir Aly, and the issue of that marriage was two daughters, the respondents. Immediately after the death of the Nawab in 1842 there arose considerable discussion regarding the right of succession to him, and there was a contest before one of the Government officers, Mr. Elliott, on that subject. No final decision, however, appears to have been come to until after the passing of Act XVIII of 1848, which placed the administration of the estate of the late Nawab at the disposal of the Governor of Bombay in Council, leaving to them to determine who were entitled to succeed. Their course of action under that Act was to refer the matters in dispute, in the first instance, to Mr. Frere ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... am, the other widow; that Bakhtiar-ul-Nissa Bagam was to take the share to which she would be entitled as legitimate daughter, namely, eight-sixteenths or one-half; and that the remaining six-sixteenths were to be divided between Mir Moinuddin Khan and his brother Mir Kamruddin, two distant relatives of the Nawab, who filled the character of residuaries according to Muhammadan law. It is, of course, impossible to go behind the finding of Mr. Frere, which was adopted and confirmed by the Governor in Council, and must be assumed to have determined, once and for all, the succession of Afzaluddin. Bakhtiar-ul-Nissa Begam died in 1845 in her mother's lifetime. Amir-ul-Nissa did not die until 1857, and it is conceded that, but for the questio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g been originally a Rajput girl who had been converted to Muhammadanison, she was brought into the zanana of the Nawab as his purchased slave; that she was the mother, whilst still a slave, of Bakhtiar-ul-Nissa by him; and that on the day previous to the celebration of the nikah marriage, by which she became his wife, he had emancipated her. It must also be assumed that the Willa rule of the Muhammadan law is such as Mr. Scoble has shown it to be upon the authorities which he cited. The question now to be decided is, whether the Act in question prevents, the application of that rule of law, and entitles those parties, who but for it would have succeeded to their grandmother as her natural heirs, to take the inheritance. Each of the Courts b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ject: We think that Act V of 1843 deprived the plaintiff of any right to bring this suit. Amir-ul-Nissa died in 1857 when that Act was in full force. We think that the effect of that Act was to prevent the enforcement of any rights which would, if that Act had not been passed, have arisen out of the status of slavery. The right claimed by the plaintiff, rests, solely upon the alleged fact that Amir-ul-Nissa had been at one time the slave of the late Nawab. He is said by the plaintiff to have enfranchised Amir-ul-Nissa; and on the authority of 1 Baillie's Digest, 386, 387, and 3. Hedaya, 444, 445, it is contended that he, as her emancipator, or, he being dead, his nearest male relative, or, in default of him, that male relative's h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... heir Lordships as to the non-applicability of this enactment to the present case. It was first said that to apply it to this case would be to give a retrospective effect to the Act, in violation of the well-known rule of construction. Their Lordships cannot accede to that argument. The Act was in force at the time of the death of Amir-ul-Nissa; and the question--who is entitled to succeed to her property--is determinable by the law as it stood when the succession opened. Their Lordships cannot recognize any vested interest said to have been acquired previous to the passing of the Act by the unascertained persons who might at her death be the then residuary heirs of her husband; or admit that her husband, by the act of emancipation, acquired ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n subject to the old Muhammadan law, the master in such a case would be entitled to take the property of the slave; and the son of the slave or the other natural heirs of the slave could not be said to be persons who may have acquired property by inheritance. The clause upon this construction of it would have no meaning or operation. 9. Their Lordships cannot accede to the general proposition of Mr. Doyne, that the operation of the statute or of this particular section in it is to be confined to the property of persons who at the time of their death were slaves. They are of opinion that in construing this remedial statute they ought to give to it the widest operation which its language will permit. They have only to see that the partic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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