Viscount Sumner. -

The appellant claimed certain sums held at her death by Brijcomari, the widow of a banker and moneylender in Calcutta, Rangoon and elsewhere, named Bhagwandas Bagla, who was an Agarwalla Jain. He is the only son and youngest child of Mahadevi deceased, a granddaughter of Bhagwandas and Brijcomari, and the respondents are the surviving executor and the residuary legatee under Brijcomari's will. It is undisputed that, under the Mitakshara law as modified by the customs and usages of the Agarwalla community relating to stridhan, the plaintiff is now entitled to whatever belonged to his mother Mahadevi during her lifetime. Originally the action was brought for an account, but at the trial this was abandoned and the plaintiff elected to rely only on his claim for sundry specific items. The defendants subsequently agreed to this course being taken, relinquishing also any claim to any set-off or account on their side. For several of the relevant years Brijcomari's books of account were not forthcoming, having been, it was said, lost in a riot or consumed in a fire. This may have deprived the plaintiff of useful evidence and the defendants of circumstances proving a disc