MURUGAPPA CHETTI Vs. NAGAPPA CHETTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The important point for determination in this case is whether the first plaintiff, hereinafter referred to as "the plaintiff" is, as found by the Subordinate Judge, the adopted son of the defendant. The oral evidence in the case proves beyond all doubt that the plaintiff was, on or about the 28 October 1887, while a boy of 12 or 13 years of age, formally given in adoption to the defendant and accepted by the latter as his son and that such gift and acceptance were accompanied by ceremonies usual among the members of the community to which the parties belong, "viz.", Sudras of the class known as Nattukottai Chetties. That the plaintiff has ever since lived away from his natural home and as a member of the defendant's family is equally well established. It is further shown that the defendant got the plaintiff married and that the issue of that marriage (the 2nd plaintiff), 4ms also grown up as a member of the defendant's family.

(2.) Mr. Sivaswami Aiyar on behalf of the defendant contended that, in spite of all the above circumstances, it should be held that in point of law there was no valid affiliation of the plaintiff as the defendant's son, inasmuch as the natural father of the plaintiff was induced to part with him in consideration of the payment, some short time before the adoption, of the sum of Rs. 6,000 and odd made by the defendant to the natural father. The argument on this point, so far as I followed it, was that the transaction in question was one known to the Hindu Law as the affiliation of a "son bought" and as such a form of affiliation is prohibited in modern times, the plaintiff's claim as adopted son must fail.

(3.) As regards the texts and the passages from the commentaries cited by Mr. Sivaswami Aiyar, their real effect was that a person buying a child had the power, by the very act of purchase, of conferring upon the child the status of a member of his family without the performance of rites or ceremonies prescribed in the case of an Aurasa son, though the performance thereof was recommended as productive of religious merit.