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THE JAINA LAW
on the subject can be ascertained only by investigating the customs which prevail among them.” In the Privy Council, Sir Montague E. Smith said : The Courts would not deny "to the large and wealthy communities existing among the Jainas, the privilege of being governed by their own peculiar laves and customs, when these laws and customs were, hy sufficient evidence capable of being ascertained and defined ; and were not open to objection on grounds of public policy or otherwise."
In the same year, in Chotay Lal v. Chunnoo Lal, 40. 744, the question was whether a Jaina daughter took a limited estate, like a Hindu widow, or an absolute estate. It was held that, in the absence of proof of special custom, varying the ordinary Hindu Law of Inheritance, that law must be applied to Jainas. At p. 751 Sir M. E. Smith says: "Neither side appears to have gone into evidence as to the custom of the Jainas, or to show that the rule of inheritance amongst the sect of Jainas... was different from the ordinary law.” The implication is that the Jaina Law, if any, would have been applicable if it were known, but none was produced in the particular case.
In 1879, in a case, Bimal Das v. Shikhar Chand (unreported), a Jaina custom was set up by which a husband claimed to succeed to the wife in pro
