NANU KUTTAN Vs. NANU NEELANKANDAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Though the second appeal was filed by three of the seven plaintiffs, two of them have subsequently died; and the sole surviving appellant is the third plaintiff. The question for consideration in the second appeal is what is the law of inheritance that obtains among the Valans of Travancore, whether makkathayam or marumakkathayam. The plaintiffs are the marumakkathayam heirs, whereas the contesting defendants the makkathayam heirs, of the acquirer of the property in dispute. The Trial Court, though inclined to hold that the law applicable to the community was makkathayam, held that the documents relating to the suit property indicated marumakkathayam. The lower appellate court, on the other hand, held that the law applicable was makkathayam; and that the indication in the documents contra was not conclusive.

(2.) Since this community did not have members having any considerable property, precedents are rare. The only decision available is Paily Thommen v. Ayyappan Kutty Konnunni ( 1955 KLT 564 ) relating to the Valans of Cochin. One Judge of the Travancore - Cochin High Court has held therein that the Valans of Cochin follow a mixed form of inheritance, while the Arayans observe makkathayam. The learned Judge has based his decision on some observations contained in the Cochin State Manual, the Cochin Tribes and Castes and the Castes and Tribes of Southern India.

(3.) Valans constitute one of the fishing castes. There are four or five sub castes in the fishing caste, Valan, Arayan or Katalarayan, Mukkuvan, Marakkan and Nulayan. The fishing caste in Cochin consists really of the first two, the members of the next two being, according to the Cochin Tribes and Castes by Anantha Krishna Iyer, Vol. I, page 231, sojourners from the sea coasts of Malabar and Travancore adjoining the Cochin State. The same work says that Valans follow a system of inheritance partaking of the character of succession from father to son and from maternal uncle to nephew, i. e., a mixed system of inheritance. Again, it says that among the Valans of Cochin self acquired property is generally equally divided between the brothers and the sons, while ancestral property goes to the brothers; that among the Arayans succession is in the male line, i. e., the sons succeed to the property of their father; and that in the case of Mukkuvans also succession is in the male line in Cochin and South Malabar and in the female line in North Malabar. Sundara Aiyar in his Malabar and Aliyasantana Law has. appended a list of castes governed by makkathayam and marumakkathayam systems of inheritance as Appendix A at page 327. Among the makkathayam castes the author has included Mukkuvans in the south land he has included among the marumakkathayam castes also mukkuvans in the south. This appears to be a mistake. Mukkuvans in the south follow makkathayam, whereas Mukkuvans in the north follow marumakkathayam. That is what Anantha Krishna Iyer has stated in his work already referred to; and that appears to be the correct position.