ANIVILLAH SUNDARARAMAYA Vs. CHERLA SEETHAMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff and his father were-members of an undivided family. The father made a gift of about eight acres of land which formed ancestral property to the first defendant, his daughter, in 1899, The father died in 1904, and the plaintiff sues to recover possession of the land given to the first defendant by his father, on the ground that the father was not competent to make a gift of joint family property. The family owned not less than 200 acres at the time of the gift.

(2.) The lower appellate court was of opinion that the plaintiff s father had intended at the time of her marriage to give some properties to the first defendant and as he was only carrying out that intention by making this gift, it is valid.

(3.) The marriage took place about forty years before the gift. There is no evidence that the father then had any intention to give any property to the first defendant. We are, therfore, unable to accept that finding. Is the gift then valid?