Judgment

SHINGHAL, J.:- This appeal of the defendant, by certificate, is directed against the appellate judgment of the High Court of Bombay dated June 27/28, 1968. As the appeal must succeed on a short point of law, it will be enough to state those facts which bear on it. It is a matter of regret that a voluminous paper-book should have been prepared in this case and its hearing delayed for so long.

2. Shivanna Devadiga, husband of plaintiff No. 1 and father of the remaining plaintiffs, had a hotel known as Krishnananda Upahar Graha in Bombay. Defendant Siddu Venkappa Devadiga was his sisters son. According to the plaintiffs, Shivanna started another hotel known as Purshottam Restaurant at a distance of about a furlong from Krishnananda Upahar Graha. As the parties were governed by Aliya Santhana Law, Shivanna looked after the defendant, his mother and her other children. The plaintiffs pleaded that the defendant was brought to Bombay by Shivanna and was employed by him in Purshottam Restaurant upto about 1955. He then went to his place in South Kanara, and did not return to Bombay until after Shivannas death on September 8, 1958. The plaintiffs further pleaded that as the defendant