Sir George Rankin:-

The appellant Ismail Ahmed Peepadi (herein called "the plaintiff") was born on 1st May 1919. On 12th November 1936 - when he was seventeen years old-the suit out of which this appeal arises was brought on his behalf in the District Court of Amherst in Burma. Abdul Gaffoor, his mother's elder brother, acted as next friend, and on 8th December 1936, leave was obtained to sue in forma pauperis. The purpose of the suit was to establish that the plaintiff was the legitimate son and only child of one Haji Ahmed Peepadi, an inhabitant of Moulmein, who had died there on 8th August 1935, leaving one widow Momin Bibi, defendant 1 and that under the law applicable to Sunni Mahomedans the plaintiff was entitled to a fourteen annas share in the deceased's estate. This claim had been first made, so far as appears, by a lawyer's letter dated 18th February 1936. The estate of the deceased consisted in part of a one-fourth share in the estate of his father who had died on or about 12th January 1935. The defendants to the suit, in addition to the widow, were the deceased's brother Cassim, his step-brother Hashim, and two step-sisters. They all joined in one written statement dated