Judgement

Appeal (No. 71 of 1928) from a decree of the High Court in its appellate jurisdiction (December 6, 1926) which affirmed, so far as material to the present appeal, a judgment of the Court in its original jurisdiction (January 6, 1925).

The appeal related to the rights of maintenance of the two illegitimate sons of a Sudra by a continuous concubine. The suit was instituted on September 8, 1919, against the father by the mother as next friend of the sons and of a daughter who were minors. Maintenance was claimed from July 15, 1919, it being alleged that the defendant had neglected to provide maintenance from that date. The father died on April 21, 1921, before the trial, leaving no separate property and no legitimate son or grandson; the appellants, collaterals of the father who had succeeded by survivorship to the joint estate, were joined as defendants in his place.

The facts are stated in the present judgment.

The trial judge, Kumaraswami Sastri J., awarded maintenance to each son for his life and to the daughter until she attained eighteen years of age, and by his judgment decreed that the maintenance should be a charge upon the joint family property.

The decision was af