1. The plaintiff, who is the mother of the last male holder of property admittedly vatan, having been postponed in the succession to the defendant as the nearest male member of the vatandar family, u/s 2 of Bom. Act V of 1886, has brought this suit to recover maintenance on the ground that she as the widow of a deceased male holder is entitled to maintenance from that holder''s successors. The learned Trial Judge dismissed the suit on the ground that service and uncurtailed remuneration must go hand in hand unless the service incumbent on the hereditary office has been commuted, and that even if the property-had been the subject of the Gordon Settlement, it would not affect the incidents of vatan property unless it were shown that such incidents had been expressly altered or cancelled.
2. The lower Appellate Court, being of opinion that the property must, for reasons stated, be taken to have been the subject of the Gordon Settlement, allowed the plaintiff''s claim on the ground that he who takes the bent fit of an inheritance must bear the burdens annexed to it in his predecessor''s hands.
3. If the property is held under a sanad under the Gordon Settlement, each successive male holder is substantially holding an estate of inheritance in tail male unburdened by any duties of service, in which case the objections expressed by the Trial Judge to the incumbrance of an estate assigned as remuneration for public services may be disregarded.
4. In this view the hearing of the second appeal was adjourned in order that the Pleaders might ascertain whether the property is held by the defendant under a Gordon Settlement sanad. We have now been informed by the Pleaders that the suits should be decided on this assumption. We, therefore, hold that the defendant, having taken by inheritance an estate which the public interest does not require to be held free from the incumbrances binding on his predecessors within the limits of the vatandar family, is liable for the plaintiff''s maintenance. We affirm the decree of the lower Court and dismiss the appeal with costs.
