RAJA V V MUVVA GOPALA KRISHNA YACHENDRA RAJA VELUGOTI SARVAGANA KUMARA KRISHNA YACHENDRA BAHADUR VARU Vs. RAJAH V V S K KRISHNA YACHENDRA :RAJAH VELUGOTI VENKATA RAMA KRISHNA YACHENDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following Judgment of the court was delivered by

(2.) THESE appeals arise out of the order of the tribunal appointed under s. 8 of the Madras Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948 (Madras Act XXVI of 1948), hereinafter called the Act, apportioning the advance compensation given and interim payments made in connection with the vesting of the Venkatagiri Estate in the government of Madras as a result of a notification issued under sub-s. (4) of s. 1 of, the Act from the notified date, i.e., 7/09/1949.

(3.) THE Venkatagiri Estate is an ancient estate in North Arcot and the necessary history of the estate for the purposes of this case is contained in the document Exhibit A-1 with which we now deal. Kumara Yachendra Bahadur Varu, who tops the genealogical table noted above and his four sons mentioned therein, are parties to this document. Kumara Yachendra Bahadur Varu represents also his minor son Venugopala Krishna Yachendra. THEdocument recites that the estate had been made over in 1878 to Rajagopala Krishna Yachendra, the eldest of the four brothers, by their father Kumara Yachendra Bahadur Varu, the then Rajah, as he wanted to devote himself to offering prayers to God for obtaining salvation. He was said to be the sole heir to the estate, as Venkatagiri Zamindari was an impartible estate and succession to it was governed by the rule of lineal primogeniture. In 1889, two of the brothers, Venkata Krishna Yachendra' and Muddukrishna Yachendra, expressed a desire for the partition of the estate. THE then Rajah, i.e., Rajagopala Krishna Yachendra, the eldest brother, asserted that it was not liable for partition. THE four brothers then consulted their father and he told them : `that the Venkatagiri Zamindari was originally acquired by the valour of our ancestors in warfare, that the Zamindari is ancient, that it is an Impartible Estate which has to pass in the order of primogeniture, that at the time when the Sannad Istimdar Milk was given to the Raja of Venkatagiri who was ruling at the time of the permanent settlement th e Peshkush was settled for this Venkatagiri Samasthanam on the amount which was being paid as tribute and on the entire expenses relating to military assistance that was to be rendered to the Nawab's government which was in power previously that for this reason this Venkatagiri Samasthanam is not at all partible that the immovable properties relating thereto and also other immovable properties acquired with the income of the said Samasthanam are not liable for partition that this is his opinion in regard to immovable properties........