RAYUDU PALLAMSETTI Vs. DOMMETI SRIRAMULU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The suit out of which this second appeal arises was laid by the respondent (plaintiff) for recovery of Rs. 3,000 as being the price of gold ornaments given to the defendants in connection with the con-tract of marriage between the minor son of the plaintiff and the minor daughter of defendants 1 and 2.

(2.) In about the last week of May 1957, the 2nd defendant, the wife of the 1st defendant, as her husband (1st defendant) was away in Rangoon came to the house of the plaintiff to negotiate the marriage of her daughter with the plaintiffs son. The parties arrived at an agreement and decided that the marriage of the plaintiffs son should take place with the daughter of the defendants (appellants) and exchanged courtesies. Pursuant to the understanding arrived at, the plaintiff presented a gold chain costing Rs. 2,100, silk saree and other clothes and also a sum of Rs. 200 to meet some other incidental expenses. The total value of the presents and other items given to the defendant came to Rs 2,955. The 1st defendant returned from Rangoon on 20th August 1957 and even before that he had ratified the action of his wife and the plaintiff in settling the marriage of his daughter Subsequently, the marriage could not come off for a variety of reasons, and the plaintiff, therefore, laid action for recovery of the gold chain and other items presented to the daughter of the defendants, or the value thereof.

(3.) The defendants resisted the suit on the ground that the allegations relating to dowry and the presents are not, true According to them, only one gold chain of six sovereigns of the value of Rs. 500 was given. The statement of the plaintiff regarding the dowry to be paid to the bridegroom by the defendants side was admitted. The main defence is that the plaintiff brought the suit in violation of the settlement arrived at between the parties, and that he is not entitled to recover the value of the jewellery or the money, or claim damage for the reason that the contemplated marriage would be void under the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act.