KONAMMAL Vs. ANNADANA JADAYA GOUNDER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS litigation is concerned with the right of succession to the Jadaya Gounder Jaghir or Chinna Tiruppadi Hill Polliem, as it was formerly known, in the South Arcot District of the Madras Presidency. These ancient polliems in Southern India have always been held to be impartible, and this estate has now been included in the schedule of impartible estates to the Madras Impartible Estates Act II of 1904.

(2.) IT is therefore according to the definition in Section 2 of the Act "an estate descendible to a single heir and subject to the other incidents of impartible estates in Southern India," and the proprietor of the estate ia "the person entitled to the possession thereof as single heir under the special custom of the family or locality in which the estate is situated, or if there be no such family or local custom under the general custom regulating the succession to impartible estates in Southern India."

(3.) THE plaint included an alternative claim by the second plaintiff', who is the son of the first plaintiff's sister under a will made by the last holder. This claim has been rejected rightly in both the lower Courts as Section 4 of the Impartible Estates Act restrains the proprietor from making any alienations to ensure beyond his own lifetime except for necessary purposes, except in so far as Sub-section (3) preserves his right to provide for the succession to the estate in default of heirs.