ANNAMALAI AMMAL Vs. SUNDARATHAMMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal raises a question relating to validity of a gift of a reasonable portion of the joint family property by a father in favour of his daughter, a few years before her marriage. The gift in question was made by the father of the plaintiffs, one Mahalinga Nadar, under Ex. P. 1 dated 3-21921. Under that document the donor gave a life estate to defendant 1 his wife, & a vested remainder to the plaintiff in 3 acres and 17 cents of dry land and a house. Defendant 1 was married by the said Mahalinga Nadar, as his first wife, who was no other than the first defendant's sister, was sickly. As the two wives of Mahalinga Nadar could not pull on together, defendant 1 began to live separately with her daughter, the plaintiff herein, and in 1921 as stated above, Mahalinga made a gift of the property in the manner mentioned above. Sometime after the death of the donor, defendant 1 executed a release deed in respect of the said property in favour of defendants 3 and 4, the sons of Mahalinga Nadar by the first wife under D. 3 dated 15-11-1929. This led the plaintiff to institute the suit for a declaration of her title to the suit property. The suit was resisted 'inter alia on the ground that it was not competent for the father to make a gift of any portion of joint family property in favour of the daughter.

(2.) While finding that the property gifted under Ex. P. 1 to defendant 1 was a reasonable portion of the property, the Courts below held that it was beyond the powers of a father to gift away a portion of the joint family property to the daughter, though it would have been within the powers of a father to make such a gift on the occasion of the marriage of the daughter. In the result they dismissed the suit.

(3.) The aggrieved plaintiff has filed this second appeal challenging the correctness of the finding of the Courts below. On this question there does not seem to be any direct case. The case is, therefore, one of first impressions and I have to decide it in the light of observations contained in some of the decided cases.