D. GOVINDAN NAIR Vs. K. KALLYANI AMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appeal is directed against the judgment dated 26.9.1992 in O.S. No. 156 of 1989 of the Sub Court, Kozhikode. Suit was one for partition in which a preliminary decree was passed allotting /32 rd share in the plaint property in favour of the two plaintiffs with mesne profits, past and future, reserving the quantum thereof to be determined in the final decree proceedings. Sole defendant in the suit, aggrieved by the decree so passed, has preferred this appeal.

(2.) BY passage of time, both the plaintiffs and also the defendant had passed away, and their legal representatives have been substituted in the appeal.

(3.) AFTER hearing the counsel on both sides in extenso, we find, in the given facts of the case, the solitary question that calls for determination is whether Ext. A2 agreement is a family arrangement effected by the parties for division of the plaint properties among themselves or not. The intention of the parties has to be gathered primarily from the terms in the document to examine whether the deed (A2) had been executed as a settlement between the members of the family of their disputes, by which each party takes a share of the family property by virtue of the independent title, which is, to that extent and by way of compromise, admitted by the other parties.