KUNJI PILLAI AMMA Vs. SOMANATHA PILLAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs in a suit for partition are the appellants in this second appeal. The 1st plaintiff is the widow and the 2nd plaintiff, the son of one deceased Kuttan Pillai. The plaint schedule properties jointly belonged to Kuttan Pillai and his mother the 2nd defendant. On the death of Kuttan Pillai, the properties devolved on the plaintiffs, 2nd defendant and the 4th defendant, daughter of Kuttan Pillai by another wife. The 2nd defendant is stated to have executed a settlement deed Ex. P1 in favour of the 1st defendant and the plaintiffs' prayer was to set aside this settlement deed and for partition of the properties.

(2.) The 1st defendant, who alone contested the suit, put forward the plea that deceased Kuttan Pillai had not married the 1st plaintiff and that the 2nd plaintiff was not the son of deceased Kuttan Pillai.

(3.) Both the Courts below found that there has been no legal marriage between deceased Kuttan Pillai and the 1st plaintiff as there was no evidence to show that Kuttan Pillai had presented cloth to the 1st plaintiff at the time of the marriage and that was one of the essential conditions required for a valid marriage under the Nair Act. The lower appellate Court, in view of its finding that the 1st plaintiff was not the legally wedded wife and the 2nd plaintiff the son of deceased Kuttan Pillai, did not go into the question whether the plaint items belonged to the 2nd defendant and deceased Kuttan Pillai as their sub tarwad property or whether it belonged to them as tenants-in-common.