SABAVA YELLAPPA Vs. YAMANAPPA SABU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the plaintiff sued to recover possession of certain lands conveyed to defendant No. 1 by Sabu, the adoptive father of the plaintiff, under a sale-deed, Exhibit 85, dated September 21, 1903, and the other lands in suit conveyed by Sabu and his wife, defendant No. 6, by a deed of gift, Ex. 55, on June 26, 1917. The plaintiff was adopted in June 1919 by defendant No. 6, the widow of Sabu who died in September 1917. Out of the lands which were given in gift by Exhibit 55, survey number 181 was alienated by defendant No. 1 in favour of defendant No. 5, her Mukhtyar, in 1918, who in his turn sold it to defendant No. 2 in May 1921. Survey No. 336, one of the lands given in gift, was sold by defendant No. 1 to defendants Nos. 3 and 4 in September 1918.

(2.) The case of the plaintiff was that the sale transaction of 1903 was illegal and void, because defendant No. 1 was the mistress of Sabu, and though the ostensible consideration was cash, the real consideration was illegal, that is, past and future cohabitation. As regards the deed of gift, it was alleged by the plaintiff that defendant No. 1 was in a position to dominate the will of Sabu and that it was for the same unlawful object and consideration.

(3.) Defendant No. 1 denied that she was the mistress of Sabu and contended that she was admitted as an orphan into the house of Sabu's father and was brought up by Sabu's mother Gangava, that she was married to one Yellappa, that the sale-deed was for cash consideration and that the gift was not invalid, and that as regards the properties comprised in the sale- deed, the suit was barred by limitation.