cient for the plaintiff, who is the wife of a Hindu gentleman of high position and considerable affluence. Neither is the allowance of Rupees 100 per month made by Rájá Kamal-krishna to his wife to be taken as a measure of the defendant's liability. A wife held in honour by her husband the head of his household and the mistress of his servants such as the wife of Rájá Kamal-krishna appears to be in a very different position from that which the plaintiff is ever likely again to occupy. The plaintiff appears to me to have rather overstated her claim. I take into consideration the fact that the defendant's family is considerably larger than that of Ràjá Kamal-krishna, but I think that the plaintiff is fairly entitled to an allowance at the rate of 80 Rupees per month to be increased to 120 Rupees if she be turned out of the family house, and there will be a decree for that amount from May 1865 inclusive. The plaintiff will get costs on scale No. 2.-H. C. O.-22nd of April 1865. Vyavastha of minority.* CHAPTER IV. ON MINORITY AND GUARDIANSHIP. SECTION I. ON MINORITY. 206. Agreeably to the law as current in Bengal, the end of the fifteenth year is the limit I. An infant (shishu,) before his eighth year, must Authority. be considered as similar to a child in the womb; un til his sixteenth year (a) he is called bála (minor) and also poganda (adolescent:) afterwards (he is considered as) acquainted with civil affairs (or adult in law.) NÁRADA and KátyáYana.—Vyavahára-tattwa. Vide Celeb. Dig. Vol. II. p. 125. (a) "Until his sixteenth year," signifies to the nearest limit of his sixteenth year consequently he is a minor until the close of his fifteenth year.-1bid, Vol. I. p. 300. II. Infancy extends to the fifth year; childhood is limited to the tenth; adolescence continues to the sixteenth year, when puberty commences.-A text cited by Sri-dhara Swámi.-Ibid, p. 300. Authors agree that minority extends to the end of the fifteenth year; and that until that time the minor is called 'bála ;' but they differ in giving him the other names at particular of periods of his age during minority. Thus in the text of NÁRADA and Kátyáyana he is denominated shishu' to the eighth year; and he is called ' bála,' as well as 'poganda' till the sixteenth year of his age. In the text cited by Shri-dhara Swámí he is called 'kumára' till the fifth year, poganda till the tenth, and Kishora to the end of the fifteenth year: after that his puberty commences. Jagan-nátha alluding to the text of KÁTYÁYANA above cited, says as follows: "Under eight years, or before the commence ment of his eighth year, he is an infant (shishu:) and he is also a minor, (but) distinguished (from an adolescent.) Another is also distinguished, called a young infant (kumára) to the com* Vide Srikrishna's Commentary on the Daya bhaga (Coleb,) p. 58;—and Macn. H. L. Vol. I. p. 103. It may be here mentioned that, agreeably to the Regulations of Government, the state of minority is held to extend to the end of the eighteenth year. See Section 2, Regulation XXVI of 1793. mencement of his fifth year; agreeably to the same text cited by Raghu-nandana, infancy extends to the fifth year. The use of this distinction regards penance or expiation and the like. But here minority must be taken to the end of the fifteenth year; and this must be understood of a computation by vulgar or sávana time from the day of his birth. Afterwards he is adult or competent to (manage) affairs.* Vyavastha cable.+ 207. A minor is incompetent to do any civil act: such, if done by him, is void and revo I. A contract made by a person intoxicated, or Authority. insane, or grievously disordered, or wholly dependant, by an infant, or a decrepit old man, or (in the name of another) by a person without authority, is utterly null.-MANU. See Coleb. Dig. Vol. II. p. 193. II. A contract made by a person intoxicated, or insane, or grievously disordered, or disabled, by an infant, or a man agitated by fear or the like, or (in the name of another) by a person without authority, is utterly null.-JÁGNYAVALKYA. Ibid. p. 193. III. What is given by a person in wrath or excessive joy, or through inadvertence, or during disease, minority, or madness, or under the impulse of terror, or by one intoxicated or extremely old, or by an outcast, or an idiot, or by a man afflicted with grief or with pain, or what is given in sport; all this is declared ungiven, or void.-VRIHASPATI. Ibid, p. 197. IV. What has been given by men agitated with fear, anger, lust, grief, or (the pain of) an incurable disease, or as a bribe, or in jest, or by mistake, or through any fraudulent practice must be considered as ungiven; so must any thing given by a minor, an idiot, a (slave, or • Mr. Colebrooke says:-"The distinction may be thus recapitulated: a minor (bála) is in early infancy to the end of his fourth year, and called kumára; in law he is an infant to the end of his seventh year, and in this period of his life is called shishu; he is called a boy (poganda) from his fifth to the end of his ninth year; and his adolescence (kishora) continues from the tenth to the end of the fifteenth year.—Dig. Vol, I. p. 300. According to NÁRADA and many other authorities a minor can neither be arrested, nor summoned to answer a suit and a trial in which a minor is plaintiff, or defendant, is pronounced to be wrong.-Colebrooke's remarks. Vide Strange's H. L. Vol. II. p. 210. other) person not his own master, a diseased man, one insane, or intoxicated, or in consideration of work unperformed.-NABADA. Ibid. p. 181. V. What has been given by men under the impulse of lust, or anger, or by such as are not their own masters, or by one diseased, or deprived of viritity, or inebriated, or of unsound mind, or through mistake, or in jest, may be taken back.-KÁTYÁYANA. Ibid, p. 187. It is owing to this civil incompetency that— Vyavastha 208. One is not bound to pay, during his minority, the debt of his ancestor even though he inherit his assets,* but he must pay it on attaining majority. I. On the death of a father, (his debt) shall in no case Authority. be paid by his sons incapable from nonage of con ducting their own affairs; but at their full age (of fifteen years,) they shall pay it in proportion to their shares; otherwise they shall dwell hereafter in a region of horror.-Kátyáyana.† II. Even though he be independent (a,) a son incapable from nonage of conducting affairs is not (immediately) liable for debts.†-NÁRADA. (a) Independent;'-separate. It is consequently intimated, that there is no other person, such as undivided brothers and the rest, amenable for the payment of that debt. He, who has neither father, nor mother, is also deemed independent.+ Owing to the same incompetency it has also been ordained, that209. The property received by a minor should Vyavastha be deposited, free from disbursement, in the hands of his kinsmen and friends. Authority. Let them deposit, free from disbursement, in the hands of kinsmen and friends, the wealth of such as have not attained majority; as well as of those who are absent.† KÁTYÁYANA. * It has, however, been determined as a settled rule, that debts must follow the assets in to whosesoever hands they come. See ante, pp. 342 & 345. + Coleb. Dig. Vol. I. pp. 268, 299, So a text expresses, "The property of minors should be so preserved until they attain their full age."* Vyavastha ́ affairs. 210. A guardian should be appointed for taking care of his property and managing the necessary Legal opinion delivered in, and admitted by, a court of justice, and examined and approved of by Sir William Macnaghten. Q. A man dies involved in debt, and is survived by two minor sons the elder of whom is only thirteen years of age, and there is no adult representative of the deceased. If any person bring an action against the minors, that action, according to the privileges conferred by the Regulations of Government, and to the established usage of the country, cannot be admitted, and it has been provided, that minority continues until the completion of eighteen years of age, after which period majority commences. In this case, according to the Hindu law, is an action brought against the elder son of the deceased debtor admissible or not? And does the liquidation of the debt contracted by the father become incumbent on him? R. According to the law, the action for debt brought against the elder son of the deceased debtor, who is only thirteen years old, is not admissible. When the minor may attain the age of majority, he must discharge the debt contracted by the father, and not previously.† Zillah Midnapore.-Macn. H. L. Vol. II., Ch. X, Case 11 (pp. 287, 288.) Vyavastha themselves.‡ SECTION II. ON GUARDIANSHIP. 211. The sovereign (a) is the universal superintendent of those who cannot take care of *Coleb. Dá, bhá p. 58. † At the expiration of the term of minority, the son and son's son of a person deceased are bound to discharge the obligations of their ancestor; and other heirs are so, provided they take his assets; but under no circumstances is a minor answerable for such obligation: and so long as the minority continues, the property left by the deceased cannot be sold for the liquidation of any debt he may have contracted. The Sudder Court, however, has decided against this opinion, as will be presently seen, Vide Coleb. Dig. Vol. III. p. 504 ;-Strange's Hindu law. Vol. I. pp. 103, 104; -Macn, H. L. Vol, I. p. 104. |