SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY, PONDICHERRY REP. BY ITS GENERAL SECRETARY, SRI THUNGHUNER WALA, PONDICHERRY Vs. RAMADOSS NAIDU AND OTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal raises a point about the validity of an alienation of a Hindu minor's property by a de facto guardian. This species of guardians has been abolished by S. 11of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956. But, the transaction in this case arose before the Act, and hence it bears on the position of law which prevailed earlier. It also raises a point as to the appropriate steps to be followed by the minor for impugning or getting over sales by de facto guardians. The facts of this case are not in dispute. One Lakshmi Ammal had a life interest and her two sons had a vested remainder in an item of land. These were bequeathed to them under a Will. When the second son Govindarajulu was still a minor, the mother Lakshmi Ammal and her first son joined together and sold the entire bequeathed property, inclusive of the minor's interest therein. In that conveyance, the mother purported to act as the minor's guardian. The minor's father was very much there at the time, but he rested content with attesting the sale deed.

(2.) The minor came of age in 1956. His mother died in 1965. Subsequently in 1967 the minor sold the half share in the property which he got under the Will to the Eurobond Society.

(3.) Meanwhile, the original aliened from Lakshmi Ammal had sold the property to another person and the latter had settled it in favour of a lady. The Aurobindo Society, as purchaser of Govindarajulu's undivided half share filed a suit for partition and separate possession against the aliened from Lakshmi Ammal and his successors in interest. These defendants resisted the suit on various grounds. They objected to the frame of the suit and the nature of the relief claimed therein. They said that the plaintiff ought not to have straightway filed a suit for partition and separate possession. They said a suit for possession or partition would not lie so long as the sale of the minor's property had not been set aside as not binding on him.