KALIDINDI VENKATA SUBBARAJU Vs. CHINTALAPATI SUBBARAJU

JUDGEMENT

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

(2.) THIS appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment and decree of the High court of Andhra Pradesh confirming the dismissal by the trial court of the suit filed by appellants 1 and 2.

(3.) MR. S.T. Desai for the appellants raised the following contentions :-(1) that the burden of proof that the will was validly executed by Somaraju and that he was a major at the time of executing it was upon the respondents and that they failed to discharge that burden; (2) that the conclusion of the High court and the trial court that he was 19 years of age at the time he executed the will was not justified; (3) that the High court erred in holding that extracts from the birth and death Registers produced by the appellants were not public documents within the meaning of s. 35 of the Evidence Act and therefore not admissible; (4) that the High court erred in holding that even if the will was not proved to have been validly executed, the said compromise decree was binding on the appellants and estopped them from challenging the validity of the will or the said decree; (5) that the appellants did not claim through the said Venkamma but under the Hindu Law of Inheritance (Amendment) Act 2 of 1929 and therefore there was no question of the compromise decree being binding on them or their being estopped from disputing 'the will or the said decree; and (6) that in any event, Somaraju did not dispose of land admeasuring about A 15.14. that there was therefore intestacy in regard to it and the appellants as reversioners ought to have been held entitled to it.