JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J. (for himself and on behalf of D.A. Desai, J.:—Horace wrote "But if Homer, who is good, nods for a moment, I think it a shame". We, in the SC, do nod despite great care to be correct, and once a clear error in our judgment is revealed, no sense of shame or infallibility complex obsesses us or dissuades this court from the anxiety to be ultimately right, not consistently wrong. The present petition for review is one such and we have listened, at unusual length, to counsels oral submissions having felt that an error in the judgment under review, likely to injure and unsettle, needed to be mended.

2. We may narrate, very briefly, the necessary facts and catena of statutes so that the flaw may be identified and rectified. The subject-matter is the partition of the assets of the erstwhile royal family of the Maharajah of cochin, if we may avoid the jaw-breaking description used in one of the relevant legislations viz. The Valiamma Thampuran Kovilakam Estate and Palace Fund belonging to the family of the Maharajah of Cochin. A capsulated survey of the landmark legislations will help locate the controversy and liquidate the error, if any. This family, to begin with