SHAMUGATHAMMAL Vs. GOMATHI AMMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question at issue in this appeal is the right of succession to the property of a dancing girl of Palamcottah named Amirthammal who died issueless in 1920. Amirthammal had four sisters of whom three still survive and were impleaded in this suit as defendants 1, 2 and 3. Plaintiff is the daughter of the other sister who had predeceased Amirthammal. Plaintiff claims that she is the sole heir of Amirthammal and that her aunts are disqualified for the following reasons; defendant 1, because she has been adopted by another dancing girl, and defendants 2 and 3 because they are married women who do not practise the profession of the dancing girl caste. Plaintiff alleges that by the customary law of the caste such married women are precluded from the succession. Plaintiff was given a decree by the Sub-Judge of Tuticorin but her suit was dismissed on appeal by the District Judge of Tinnevelly and she now comes to us in Second Appeal. Various questions of fact were disputed in the first Court, but the facts are now settled, viz. that plaintiff is a dasi and not a married woman, and that Defendant 1 was taken in adoption; and the sole question now in dispute, as indeed it was before the District Judge also, is whether plaintiff has established the custom by which she claim to exclude her two remaining aunts Defendant 2 and Defendant 3.

(2.) It is unnecessary, we think, to discuss in detail the various rulings of the Madras High Court which have been oited before us. None of them deals with the same facts as those here, and in none of them has the custom here pleaded been either upheld or negatived. Nor does either the Sub-Judge or the District Judge in coming to their respective decisions, rely upon any particular authority. One proposition however is uniformly laid down in every decision which deals with the dasi caste and that is that its members are not governed by the ordinary Hindu law in matters of succession but by caste custom and usage. The only point which really falls to be decided in this appeal is whether the evidence in this case establishes the custom pleaded by plaintiff or not.

(3.) Before discussing the actual evidence it will be well to quote the issue which was framed by the Sub-Judge. It is as follows: Whether the custom sot up by the plaintiff viz., that among dancing-women married women are excluded by women who continue to be Dasis is true, valid and legally enforceable.