V LEELA Vs. D RAJAMMAL DIED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal records the deep-rooted caste prejudices that prevail in our society. The appellants are the plaintiffs claiming to be the wife and children of CDV ('CDV' in short) and seeking partition of the properties belonging to him. The respondent is CDV's mother. The suit was dismissed.

(2.) CDV belong to an affluent well-known family of Devanga Chetty. The first appellant is a Harijan. According to her, she and CDV were married thirty years before the date of suit and the other appellants were born to them. The respondent, CDV's mother resisted the claim accusing the first appellant leading a life of immortality and ill-repute denying the marriage and also citing the insanity of CDV to prove that there could not have been any marriage.

(3.) P.W.2 the daughter has given evidence that it was CDV who performed her marriage. She was 23 years old at that time and it must be remembered that in 1978 when her brother left the fifth class Varadaraju was already insane. She refers to this also and says that, So he was already mentally deranged in 1972. The question is whether it would be possible that he would have performed the marriage of second appellant. Since in 1972 she would have been around 10 years old, because in her cross- examination, she had stated that,