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The case was heard very carefully and, at length, by the learned Commissioner. The Court issued commissions for witnesses in various parts of Central India where the Porwads are mainly found. And, on a full consideration of the evidence, the Commissioner found that "A Jaina Porwar widow being childless, can alienate immoveable property for religious purposes" (vide Exhibit 83).
This last case is of special use, as it is almost on all fours with the material points in the case before me.
To sum up. The Jainas are governed by Hindu Law, if they can neither produce any Law of their own, nor allege and prove a special custom overriding the provisions of ordinary Hindu Law as applicable to the twice-born Hindus. Where such a Law is produced, or such an usage set up and established by a Jaina, Hindu Law is excluded and the Jaina is governed by his own law or usage. See per Sir M. E. Smith, in the Privy Council judgment, at page 751 of I. L. R. 4 Cal. 36 Neither side appears to have gone into evidence as to the customs of the Jainas, or to show that the rule of inheritance amongst the seot of Jainas was different from the ordinary Law," the implícation being that Jaina Law, if any is produced, would govern the Jainas. In the case before me, the defendants have done both. They have produced ancient and authoritative Jaina Law books, which are quite clear on the point in issue before me. They have also given evidence of instances and respectable witnesses to prove that the law as laid down in the books is
ractised by the Jainas in their every day life. No doubt is cast on the genuineness or authority of the three Jaina Law books, 2 of which date back to the 11th and 12th centuries A. D and one of them to the age of the great Mauryan Chandragupta in the 4th Century B. C. These Law books give an absolute estate to a Jaina widow. There can be no mistaking the meaning of the Jaina Law on this point. The
APPENDIX B.
