SUJATHA KRISHNAN Vs. RADHA MOHANDAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs in a suit for partition are the appellants herein. By the impugned preliminary decree, the trial court directed partition of the plaint schedule properties by metes and bounds into four equal shares among plaintiff Nos. 1, 3, and 4, and the first defendant, thereby excluding plaintiff No. 2.

(2.) The parties shall hereinafter be referred to in accordance with their respective status in the suit. The plaint schedule properties originally belonged to one Krishnan, who died intestate on 10/12/2012. The first plaintiff is his widow, and the first defendant is his mother. Plaintiff Nos. 3 and 4 are the children born to Krishnan through the first plaintiff. The sole issue in controversy is whether plaintiff No. 2 is also the child of Krishnan, as she was born to the first plaintiff within four months of her marriage with him.

(3.) The plaintiffs contend that, though the marriage between the first plaintiff and Krishnan was solemnised on 4/2/2001 and the second plaintiff was born on 12/5/2001, i.e., within four months of the marriage, the second plaintiff is nonetheless the biological child of Krishnan. It is specifically pleaded that the first plaintiff and Krishnan were in a relationship even prior to their marriage, and that the second plaintiff was conceived in the course of such relationship. On the strength of the aforesaid pleadings, the plaintiffs assert that, upon the death of Krishnan, the plaint schedule properties devolved upon the plaintiffs and the first defendant in accordance with the rules governing intestate succession, and that each of them is entitled to an equal one-fifth share in plaint item Nos. 1 and 2.