Judgment

GROVER, J. :- These appeals have been brought by special leave from a judgment of the Mysore High Court. The parties to the proceedings out of which the appeals have arisen belong to Handiagnur Desai Family which was a Watandar Family. The Family had different types of Watans and was governed by the Bombay Hereditary Officers Act 1864, popularly known as the Watan Act. The items of Watan included the offices of Kulkarni and Patil and other rights in respect of some village in the district of Dharwar. The family owned Watan as well as non-Watan lands apart from moveable property.

2. About the year 1910 certain disputes arose among the junior and the senior branches of the family regarding the partition and other arrangements relating to the property. The eldest branch of the family represented now by the respondents claimed rights on the basis of primogeniture, the junior members being entitled only to maintenance. Suit No. 166 of 1910 was filed in the court of the District Judge, Dharwar, by the predecessors-in-interest of the present appellants in which one of the reliefs claimed was for partition of the one half share of the plaintiffs in the immovable and movable properti