In the Court of the Civil City Judge, at Bangalore

Original Suit No. 954/2000

Cross Examination

Lordship, I am Deepanshi Ahlawat, counsel for the Defendants in Original Suit No.954/2000,
i.e. B.R Basavaraj v. B. Rajanna and Ors.
The Defence seeks the permission of this court to cross examine the Plaintiff Mr. B. R
Basavaraj. For the record, your Lordship, the witness has been sworn in.

1. Please state your name and age for the record.

My name is B.R. Basavraj and I am 38 years old.
2. How are you related to the first defendant?
He is my father.
3. Is it correct that you reside at Hosahally, Vijayanagar, with the first defendant?
Yes that is correct.
4. Is this the affidavit which has been filed by you in lieu of your examination-in-
chief?
Yes

Self-Acquired Property
5. Are you aware that your father was driven out of his father’s home by his
brothers when he was 18?
Yes.
6. Are you aware that your father was given no money or property by his parents
when he was driven out, and had to work as a labourer?
Yes.
7. Are you aware that your father undertook several odd employments in
Bangalore after he was driven out by his brothers?
Yes
8. Are you aware that your father took loans to buy the scheduled property?
Yes
9. Do you know that your father further mortgaged the scheduled property to
construct the storeys of the house in which you currently reside?
Yes, I know this.
 10. You have stated that the suit schedule property is the ancestral property of your
father. Do you have any proof for this?
No, I do not have any documents. But I know my grandfather used to send money for
my father.
11. I put it to you that subsequent to your father being driven out, he severed ties
with his whole family, and received no support from them in turn.
No. This is untrue.
12. Is it true that your father was working in the Office of the Commissioner of
Transport and also did other jobs in his leisure time after retiring in 2001?
Yes.
13. Is it not possible, then, that he could have purchased the land from his own
savings from this employment?
No.
14. I put it to you that your father purchased the site for 8000 rupees out of his own
savings.
No. That is not true.
15. Mr. Basavaraj, this is a registered sale deed, dated 5.11.1979, which explicitly
states that your father purchased this property from one Mr. G.S. Rajanna, and
the property is in his name alone. Do you recognise it?
Yes
16. I put it to you that since the property is in the name of your father alone, there is
nothing to suggest that it is joint family property.
No, that is not true.
17. Are you aware of the ancestral property of your grandfather?

Yes.

18. Can you tell us, for the benefit of the Court?
There is agricultural land, and an ancestral house in our village.
19. Do you not know that your father’s brothers lost all the joint family land when
their harvest failed in 1969 and 1970?
No, I do not know this.
Lordship, this is the registered sale deed, dating back to 1970, showing that all the land
owned by Mr. Basavaiah and his sons was sold to Mr. Reddy, in repayment of the debt owed
to him. Please mark this as Exhibit D-1.
 20. Are you also unaware that the ancestral house you refer to had to be sold in 1972
to make ends meet?
No, I do not know.

Lordship, this is the registered sale deed, dated 1.6.1972, which shows that the house was
sold to Mr. Jeevanram, another creditor of Mr. Basavaiah. Please mark the same as Exhibit
D-2.

21. In 1973 and 1974, your grandfather and uncles wrote letters to your father
asking for financial help because they had lost all their land, and were in a state
of penury. Do you know this?
No, I do not know anything about this.

Lordship, these are five letters, in their original postmarked envelopes, written over the
course of two years, by the father of the Defendant, asking him for financial help after having
lost all their land and house, and explicitly mentioning that they were having difficulty
making ends meet. Please mark them Ex D3-D7 respectively.

22. I put it to you that your grandfather and uncles had no money after 1969, and
therefore, could not possibly have supported your father or sent him any money.
No, this is not true.
23. You stated that you are 38 years old, meaning that you were born in 1979. The
scheduled property was also purchased in 1979. How can you state with any
certainty, and without documentary proof, that the property is joint family
property?
I am sure. I know this for a fact. I heard my father say that he purchased it using the
money my grandfather sent him.
24. Is this something he repeatedly asserted?
I remember him saying it once during a family function.
25. When did your grandfather, Mr. Basavaiah, die?
He died in 1998, about 17 years ago.
26. Did you and your father go for his cremation ceremony?
No, we did not go.
27. I put it to you that the reason you did not go for the ceremony is that your father
had severed ties with his family ever since he was driven out by them at the age
of 18.
 No, this is not true.
28. I put it to you that if your grandfather had been supporting your father, as you
say, there could be no reason for your father not to go for his last rites.
No, I know my grandfather sent him money.
29. I put it to you that even if your relations had not been sour, your grandfather
had no means of supporting your father, as he, himself, was in financial trouble.
No, this is not true.
30. Therefore, I put it to you that not only has the ancestral property in your
grandmother’s name been lost but also your father did not receive any monetary
help from your grandfather or uncles since they were also in financial trouble
when the house was bought.
No that’s not true.

Mother’s Income
1. Can you please tell us your mother’s name?
My Mother’s name is Sowbhagya.
2. Was she employed during her lifetime?
No.
3. Then what is your ‘mother’s income’ that you refer to in your affidavit as being
used to purchase the house?
The income that came from my mother’s property, which my maternal grandfather
bought for her.
4. Your maternal grandfather had no ancestral property, and was employed
throughout his lifetime as a rickshaw driver. Further, he had four other
daughters. He raised several loans for the marriage of all five daughter, and, in
fact, lived in a rented house till his very last days. How, then, did he purchase
this property for your mother?
I do not know, but he purchased it for her.
5. If that is true, you must have some sale deed, a khata number, or some receipts
of income, or any document showing the existence of this property?
No, I do not have any documents.
6. I put it to you that your mother had no income, nor any property. Your maternal
grandfather was in deep debt, and could not possibly have purchased the
 property that you are alleging existed. In fact, your father even bore half the cost
of his own marriage to your mother.
No, this is not true.
7. I put to you that the suit schedule property was self-acquired by your father and
no part of it could be possibly financed by your mother.
No that’s not true.

Ulterior Motive

1. Can you tell the Court about the nature of your relationship with your father?
We used to be on cordial terms, but after he started having an illegitimate affair with
Neelama, he started harassing me and my sister Shylaja, and tried to dispossess us. He
neglected Shaylaja, even though she was pregnant, and did not stop harassing us even
though we moved to the first floor. He even asked the police to summon us and
threaten us to vacate the premises.
2. Is it Leelavathi whom you refer to in your affidavit as Neelama?
Yes. She goes by the name Neelama in the house.
3. And are you aware that your father is actually married to Leelavathi?
No, that is not a marriage. She is her kept mistress.
4. Are you employed, Mr. Basavaraj?
No, I am not.
5. Is it true that you left your studies while you were halfway through your
engineering degree in March 1999?
Yes, that is true.
6. And is it also true that you have no source of income in order to have
contributed to the construction or maintenance of the house?
Yes, I do not have any source of income.
7. I put it to you that because your father married Leelavathi, who has been taking
care of him in his old age, unlike you, who even at this age are a burden on your
father, you have filed this suit to harass him into giving part of his property to
you.
No that is not true.
Separate Possession
8. You have filed this suit for relief of separate possession and partition, is it true?
Yes.
9. Can you please explain your motivation behind filing this suit to the Court?
I am a coparcenor and I want my share in the joint family property.
10. You have alleged in your plaint that your father tried to dispossess you? Is this
true?
Yes.
11. Please explain to the court
My father has repeatedly asked me to leave the house permanently and has also used
the police to warn and threaten me so that I leave the house.
12. How many repeated attempts of dispossessing you have been made by your
father?
3 times. Twice he told me himself and on one occasion the police threatened me to
vacate the house.
13. I put it to you that the police only asked you to take care of your father and did
not on any occasion threaten you to leave the house.
No.
14. So in the course of one year your father has simply told you twice to leave the
house. Is that true?
Yes.
15. I put it to you that there have not been any serious attempt to dispossess you
from the house.
No, that is not true. He got the police to threaten us.
16. I put it to you are simply exaggerating conversations with your father and
making them sound like dispossession attempt so as to mislead this court.
No.
17. I put it to you that your possession of the suit scheduled property has never been
lawful. The documents produced by you (the registered sale deed, mortgage
deed, electricity bills) have been taken by you from your father to misrepresent
the facts of this case, given that you never had the income to make any of these
payments.
No.
18. I put it to you that you want separate possession of the house because you have
no other source of income, no place to stay and since your relations with your
father have also deteriorated, you have nowhere to go and not because you are a
 coparcenor. You just want to harass your father and take away his property
from him for your personal use.
No, this is not true.
19. Now, Mr. Basavaraj, are you married?
No.
20. But you have been having an affair with one Ms. Manjula, resident of Hosahally,
Vijayanagar. Is this not true?
No, this is not true.
Lordship, this is the sworn affidavit of Pushpavathi, Defendant No. 2 in this case,
affirming the same. Please mark this as ExhibitD-9.

21. I put it to you that you wish to marry Ms. Manjula, but she is refusing to marry
you because you are unemployed, and have no source of income. Therefore you
wish to take separate possession of your father’s property, lease it out and earn
some rental income.
No, this is not true.
22. I put it to you that you want separate possession for all these motives and not
because you are a coparcenor.
No. That is not true. I have a right in the house and I want it.
23. I put it to you that you have forcibly taken documents A1-A7 except the letter
from the passport office from your father to misrepresent the facts of this case?
No, those are my documents.
Thank you, Your Lordship. That is all for this witness.