MANDARAM NARUMAYYA CHETTI Vs. MANDARAM TIRUVANGADATHAN CHETTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We see no reason to interfere with the tending of the Judge that the properties which form the subject-matter, of the appeal before us belonged to Lakshmamma.

(2.) The next question for decision is who is her heir. The second plaintiff is the daughter of Kanakamma the legitimate daughter of Lakshmamma who survived her daughter. The 1st and 2nd defendants are the illegitimate sons of Lakshmanma born to her after she deserted her husband, the father of Kanakamma and while she was living with the 1st plaintiff. She lived with him till her death as his concubine. She was an outcaste. If all her children were legitimate it is conceded that the 2nd plaintift as the daughter s daughter would exclude the sons. But it is contended that as Lakshmamma was put out of caste, the legal relation of a respectable daughter ceased, and Kanakamma lost all her rights to succeed to her mother. It is also contended that even if the legal relation did not cease, as the defendants were living with her in her degraded state and Kanakamma was not an outcaste they are entitled to take the property, to her exclusion, and reliance is placed on the decisions reported in Sivasangu v. Minal (1888) I.L.R. 12 M. 277 and Subbaraya Pillai v. Ramasami Pillai (1899) I.L.R. 23 M. 171 at 177. The Judge finds that Lakshmamma when she deserted her husband took her daughter Kanakamma with her, that the latter lived with her mother, and was married to one Raghavulu. Whether Raghavulu is afn outcaste is one of the questions in dispute. The Judge finds that Kanakamma was not an outcaste, and though the finding is attacked ih appeal, we proceed to decide the case on the footing that she was not an outcaste.

(3.) Tara Munnee Dasse v. Moti Bunyanee 7 S.D.A. 273 was a case of corn-petition between a married daughter who remained in caste and a prostitute daughter who lived with her prostitute mother both out of caste. It was held by the Sudder Court following the opinion of the Pandits that the prostitute daughter excluded the other; the ratio decidendi being that a legal relation between the daughter in caste and her mother ceased when the latter became an outcaste.