In Brief
A joint Hindu family property suit was filed by two brothers against defendants challenging an allegedly fraudulent adoption deed. The trial court dismissed the suit, upholding the adoption. During the family's first appeal, the second plaintiff died without substitution of his legal representatives. The High Court held the appeal abated entirely. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that where parties assert a genuinely joint right in property as members of a joint family, and one dies without substitution, the entire appeal must abate to avoid contradictory, irreconcilable decrees. The right to sue was joint, not distinct, making the decree indivisible.
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