C S MUNIYAPPA Vs. PILLAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE third respondent is the first plaintiff and one Muniyappa is the second plaintiff. Respondents 1 and 2 are defendants 1 and 2 before the trial Court. Petitioners claim that they are the surviving legal representatives of deceased second plaintiff. In this judgment for convenience, the parties are referred to their status before the trial Court.

(2.) THE plaintiffs filed O. S. No. 5950/1990 for declaration of title, for a direction to transfer the katha of schedule property to their names and for other reliefs. During the pendency of the suit second plaintiff-C. S. Muniyappa died on 11-2-2002. The petitioners on coming to know about the pendency of o. S. No. 5950/1990 filed I. A. Nos. II/2005, iii/2005 and IV/2005 for condonation of delay, to set aside the abatement and to bring them on record as the surviving legal representatives of deceased second plaintiff C. S. Muniyappa. In the affidavit filed in support of the applications, the petitioners contend that the deceased C. S. Muniyappa died without leaving any relations specified in Clause I of the Schedule to Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act (for short 'the Act' ). The petitioners further contend that the deceased C. S. Muniyappa died leaving behind two brothers by name Tammaiah and Pillaiah who are also dead. Petitioners are the children of deceased tammaiah and Pillaiah and as such they contend that they are the surviving relations of deceased C. S. Muniyappa as specified in clause II of the schedule to Section 8 of the act. Therefore the petitioners want to come on record as the surviving legal representatives of deceased C. S. Muniyappa. The Trial court after hearing both the parties passed the impugned order dismissing all the three applications filed by petitioners mainly on the ground that they have failed to prove and establish that Thammaiah and Pillaiah are dead and that the petitioners have not stepped into the witness box to prove that they are the surviving legal representatives of deceased C. S. Muniyappa. Petitioners being aggrieved by this order of the Trial Court are before this court in this writ petition.

(3.) SECTION 8 of the Hindu Succession Act reads as under : sec. 8 - General Rules of succession in the case of males :- The property of a male hindu dying intestate shall devolve according to the provisions of this Chapter -