DAVULURI VENKATA HANUMANTHA RAO Vs. KASINADHUNI CHENGALVARAYUDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a Defendants' appeal against the decree and judgment in Original Suit No. 82 of 1948, a suit filed by the respondents for recovery of two items of land in the village of Pedapulivarru and for recovery of profits.

(2.) THE Defendants denied that the suit properties are service inam lands. They claimed that what was granted was only the melwaram in the suit lands. They averred that the leases and sales are valid and are fully supported by consideration. They finally pleaded that Section 44 -B, Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, was a bar to the maintainability of the suit.

(3.) IT will be seen from the aforesaid title deed that the title of the named individuals was acknowledged and the inam was confirmed to them and to their successors. This title deed does not prescribe any new mode of devolution or a devolution that is different from that prescribed under the Hindu law. In the absence of specific directions or imposition of conditions contrary to the ordinary devolution of property under Hindu law, we must hold that Government confirmed the grant to the named individuals and the successors -in -interest. If so, after the death of Sadasivalingamurthi, his widow Purnachandramma acquired a widow's estate land she was entitled in law to surrender her estate to the next heir, the divided brothers of her husband.