MAHADEO DEWANNA Vs. VYANKAMMABAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . 1. This is a second appeal by the plaintiff whose suit for partition and first appeal have been dismissed. He claims to have been adopted by Ratnamma to her deceased husband Devannax the brother of the respondent, with whom he was joint in estate. The parties are Yelmis by caste residing in Kelapur Taluq of District Yeotmal in Berar. Both the lower Court have found that the parties are governed by the law of adoption prevailing in the Madras Presidency as the Yelmis migrated to Berar from that Presidency, and there is nothing to show that they have renounced their personal law in favour of the law of the place to which they have migrated, viz., Berar.

(2.) THE learned Counsel for the appellant contends that this Court can go into the question of the fact of migration as there is no evidence to support the finding on the point as the Court of first appeal has remarked in para. 4 of its judgment that the oral evidence on the point is of no value and the authorities referred to do not prove migration but only show that some Yelmis are residing in Berar, some in the Nizam's Dominions and some in the Madras Presidency.

(3.) AS the learned Additional District Judge, however, is not very clear in his expression, I will deal with the matter as if he had discarded the evidence of the plaintiff's 'witnesses on those points. This gives rise to the question about the evidentiary value of the books mentioned above. They are written by persons who have made a special and systematic study of the customs and manners of the different castes and tribes, the areas occupied by them and other connected matters. They are therefore experts which term is defined in Section 45, Evidence Act, as persons, who are specially skilled in science, art, etc. That section makes the opinion of an expert on a point of foreign law or science, or art or identity of hand-writing or finger impressions relevant when the Court has to form an opinion upon that point. The question then is whether the study of customs and manners of tribes and castes, the areas occupied by them and other connected matters comes within the meaning of 'science or art.'