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Judgment
Basil Scott, Kt., C.J.—The question referred to us is whether the two documents dated respectively the 1st of September and the 2nd of September 1909 are instruments of partition or release.
They are instruments of partition if they are instruments whereby co-owners of any property divide or agree to divide any property in severalty.
By the first document Anant Pandurang agreed to take from his brother as his share in the family property moveable and immovable, Rs. 4000 in cash and certain securities for money in the form of bonds securing debts due to the family. The document was in the form of a release executed in favour of Govind Pandurang, the eldest brother and manager of the family. The effect of the document was to divide the property of the three co-owning brothers between Anant on the one hand and Govind and Waman on the other. Govind took a certain share of the family assets not converted into cash and we therefore think that the document passed by him amounts to an instrument of partition.
Similarly, on the and September, Waman Pandurang passed to his brother Govind a document in the form of a release whereby he and Govind divided the remaining family property by Govind handing over to Waman securities for money of the nominal value of Rs. 40,183 and of the estimated value of Rs. 12,500. That also, in our opinion, for the reasons already stated, amounts to an instrument of partition whereby the two remaining co-owners divided their property in severalty.
Our answer to the reference is, therefore, that both the documents are instruments of partition.