BILIGERI RANGAMMA Vs. ANNAPURNAMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The properties which formed the subject matter of the suit out of which this revision petition arises belonged to one Ramaswamiah who had two wives. He had two daughters by the first wife and one daughter by the second. The first wife of Ramaswamiah pre-deceased her husband and after Ramaswamaiah died his junior wife was in possession of his properties as a limited owner since the daughters of Ramaswamaiah were still living. After his junior widow died, one of the two daughters by the senior wife brought a suit for partition of the properties of Ramaswamiah, and, defendant 1 in that suit was her own full sister and defendant 2 was her half sister. A preliminary decree for partition was made in that partition suit and after the preliminary decree was made the plaintiff died. The question then arose whether the first defendant who was the full sister of the plaintiff was the sole heir and the legal representative of the plaintiff or whether the half sister who was defendant 2 was also entitled to be brought on record as one of the legal representatives of the plaintiff. The District Judge was of the view that the half sister was excluded by the full sister under the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act by which succession was governed since the plaintiff died after that Act came into force. It is the correctness of that view taken by the District Judge which is challenged in this revision petition.

(2.) The question therefore to be decided is whether the half sister was one of the heirs of the plaintiff after her death. Since the plaintiff died intestate, succession to her property was regulated by Section 15(2) of the Hindu Succession Act. Section 15(1) contains the general rules of succession to the property of a female Hindu. But Sub-section (2) provides for a special mode of succession in certain cases, slightly at variance with that provided by Sub-section (1).

(3.) Now section 15 reads: