Judgment

B. K. Mukherjea, J. :- This appeal is directed against an appellate judgment of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court dated 27-11-1945, reversing the decision of the Subordinate Judge of Mayuram made in O. S. No. 34 of 1943.

2. There is no dispute about the material facts of this case which lie within a short compass and the controversy centres round one point only which turns upon the construction of a will left by one Kothandarama Ayyar to whom the properties in suit admittedly belonged. Kothandarama, who was a Hindu inhabitant of the District of Tanjore and owned considerable properties, died on 25-4-1905, leaving behind him as his near relations his adoptive mother, Vala Ammal, his widow, Parbati, and two daughters, Nagamal and Gnambal, of whom Nagammal, who became a widow during the testator s lifetime, had an infant daughter named Alamelu. Kothandarama executed his last will on 13-3-1905 and by this will, the genuineness of which is not disputed in the present litigation, he gave an authority to his widow to adopt unto him a son of his second daughter Gnambal, should she beget one before January 1908 or in the alternative any of the sons of his two nephews, if the