The right to maintenance out of the estate of a deceased Hindu vested on his death before the commencement of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, under the Hindu law in force at the time of his death, is not affected by Sections 21 and 22 of the Act.

Judgement

BACHAWAT, J. : The first respondent, Seetharamamma, is a Brahmin woman. She was married to one Ramakrishnaya. During the lifetime of her husband she became the concubine of one Lingayya, a Sudra by caste. From 1938 until the death of Lingayya in February, 1948, she was the permanently kept concubine of Lingayya, and lived with him. During this period and thereafter, she preserved sexual fidelity to Lingayya. The second, third and fourth respondents are the sons of the first respondent by Lingayya. The husband of the first respondent is still alive. The appellants are the brothers and brother s sons of Lingayya. Lingayya was separate in estate from his brothers and brothers sons. The parties are residents of Choragudi, Baptala, now in Andhra Pradesh and governed by the Mitakshara school of Hindu law. In the plaint, as originally filed, the respondents claimed that they were exclusively entitled to the estate left by Lingayya the subordinate Judge and the High Court found that as the first respondent was and continued to be a married woman while she lived with Lingayya and bore him children, she was not the lawfully wedded wife of Lingayya and the children born of the union were not his legitimate sons, nor were they Dasiputras and as such entitled to his properties. The suit was originally dismissed by the Subordinate Judge, but on appeal, the High Court gave the respondents leave to amend the plaint by making suitable averments for the award of maintenance, and remanded the suit for trial on the question of maintenance. At the subsequent trial on the amended plaint, the Subordinate Judge decreed the respondents claim for maintenance and consequential reliefs and awarded to them maintenance during their lifetime out of the estate of Lingayya. The Subordinate Judge passed his decree on September 20, 1954. During the pendency of the appeal preferred by the appellants before the High Court, the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) came into force. The main controversies in the appeal before the High Court were (1) whether the provisions of the Act are retrospective; and (2) whether a married woman who left her husband and lived with another as his permanently kept mistress could be regarded as an Avaruddha Stree. In view of the importance of these questions, the appeal was referred to a Full Bench of the High Court. On the first question, the High Court held that the relevant provisions of the Act applied only to the estates of Hindus dying after the commencement of the Act, and that the right of the respondents to maintenance during their lifetime under the Hindu law in force at the time of the death of Lingayya was not affected by the Act. On the second question, the High Court held that the first respondent was an Avaruddha Stree of Lingayya, and was entitled to maintenance from his estate, though her husband was alive and the connection with Lingayya was adulterous. The High Court agreed with the Subordinate Judge with regard to the quantum of maintenance.

2. On behalf of the appellants, it is contended that the respondents are not entitled to claim any maintenance from the estate of Lingayya under the Hindu law as it stood prior to the commencement of the Act, because (a) the first respondent is not a Dasi and the second, third and fourth respondents are not Dasiputras of Lingayya, and this point is concluded by the previous judgment of the High Court, which has now become final between the parties; (b) the husband of the first respondent was and is still alive, and the connection of the first respondent with Lingayya was adulterous during the period of her intimacy with Lingayya and while she bore him children; (c) the first respondent being a Brahmin adulteress and Lingayya being a Sudra, the connection was pratiloma and illegal.

3. Now, under the Hindu law as it stood before the commencement of the Act, the claim of a Dasiputra or the son of a Dasi, that is a Hindu concu