NARAYANA AIYAR Vs. ANAI AIYAR ALIAS MAHADEVA AIYAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question in this case relates to the construction of a will made by a Hindu lady. It was apparently not drafted by any professional lawyer and its terms are not happily expressed. The suit was instituted by her two minor great grandsons (sons of her grandson) whom she undoubtedly intended to benefit by the dispositions contained in the will, for rent due on a rental instrument executed by the defendant for a piece of land which he had usufruc-tuarily mortgaged to the testatrix. No letters of administration with the will annexed were taken out by any one and the suit is instituted by the plaintiffs as beneficiaries under the will. It has been dismissed by the Lower Court on the ground that the plaintiffs obtained no rights under the will until the attainment of the age of majority by both of them. The substantial question for decision is whether this construction of the will is right. Its terms are as follows:-* * * * After my death (1) Minor Narayana Ayyan. aged 3 years and (2) Venkatarama Ayyan aged 1 year, my great grandsons and sons of the eldest wife of Muthurama Ayyan, the adopted son of Muthusamy Ayyan, my son, these two after the two above mentioned minors have become majors shall take in equal portions the principal Rs. 1,000 and the balance of interest due, deducting the interest paid towards the documents as long as I live. If one of them die while the other is a minor, the other who survives shall take after the said minors have become majors without any objection the principal and interest that may be due after my death as above mentioned. Nobody has right to demand the said amounts either at the time of the minority of the said minors or at the time when one has become major.

(2.) As I have given up by means of this will the said amounts to be taken by the two minors after they have become majors at their pleasure, as mentioned above the said Muthuramayyan the father of the said minors and the adopted grandson of mine has no right after my death either to the said amount or to its interest, Thus I have executed this will with firmness * * *

(3.) It will be observed that the interest on the two mortgages bequeathed under the will accruing subsequent to the death of the testatrix until both the legatees should attain age is to be taken by them. Their father is expressly disinherited by the testatrix. No intermediate estate is created in favour of any one else till the minor legatees attain age.