Judgment

B. K. Mukherjea, J. - This appeal is directed against an appellate judgment of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court dated 12-1-1948, reversing in part, a decision of the Subordinate Judge of Nellore passed in O. S. No. 3 of 1940.

2. To appreciate the material facts of the case and the controversy that now centres between the parties, it would be convenient to refer to a short genealogy which is given below :

3. The properties in dispute which are described in Sch A to the plaint admittedly belonged to one Narayanappa who was the father of the paternal grandmother of the plaintiffs. Narayanappa died intestate sometime before 1884 leaving him surviving his wife Chanchamma and a daughter named Venkata Narasamma. Narasamma was married to one Pitti Rangayya and they had a son named Venkatadri, who was the father of the plaintiffs. Chanchamma died in March, 1938 and the plaintiffs aver that they being the heritable bandhus of Narayanappa as the daughter s son s sons of the latter and there being no nearer heir in existence, they became entitled to all the properties left by Narayanappa on the death of his widow. It appears that on 22-2-1894 Chanchamma executed, what has been d