GUNTUR SRIRANGAM AIYANGAR Vs. VENGU AMMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The short point for determination in this second appeal is whether the lower Appellate Court was right in reversing the judgment of the District Munsif on the ground that the Will of one Srirangam Tirumalai Aiyangar, the deceased husband, of the plaintiff respondent was invalid in law and inoperative to divest the widow of her right to succeed to her husband's estate on the ground of intestacy. It may be pointed out in limine that a great deal of the argument before us was directed to the question whether on a proper construction of the Will itself and the directions and dispositions therein contained what were the rights, if any, of the plaintiff.

(2.) Our attention was somehow failed to be drawn by oversight to the fact that the cause of action set out in the plaint was merely for possession of the estate on the ground that the Will was not genuine and valid, and that, therefore, she was entitled to succeed to the estate practically on the basis of an intestacy and that no reliefs were claimed by the plaintiff even in the alternative on a proper construction of the Will itself and the various clauses therein. To put briefly, the plaintiff's claim was against the Will and not under the Will. Though after hearing the arguments in the case we were disposed to adjudicate about the rights of the plaintiff under the Will, as obviously it would be to the convenience of all parties so to do, still when we found that the cause of action on which the plaintiff has brought the action was not under the Will, it became very doubtful whether any decision by us on any such basis would even be regarded as useful, not to say binding.

(3.) We, therefore, directed the case to be posted again for being spoken to, and when we drew the attention of the learned practitioners on both sides to this aspect, both of them agreed to the view that no adjudication of the plaintiff's claim as under the Will was called for.