( 1 ) THIS is an appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the judgment of Sanjeeva Row Nayudu, J. in Appeal Suit No. 184 of 1957.

( 2 ) THE facts of the case lie in a very narrow compass and are not in dispute. O. S. No. 25 of 1956 on file of the Subordinate Judges Court, Tenali was instituted by one Kuppa Venkata Krishna Sastri claiming to be the reversioner to the estate of one Kuppa Lakshminarayna, who died in or about the year 1926, leaving behind him his widow, Lakshmi Narasamma, questioning the factum and validity of the adoption of Viswapathi, the appellant herein, made by Lakshmi Narasamma on 27-8-1953.

( 3 ) TO this suit were impleaded the adopted son as the first defendant and the adoptive mother as the second defendant.

( 4 ) PENDING the suit, the Hindu Succession Act (XXX of 1956) came into force (17-6-1956 ). By virtue of Section 14 of that Act, the property possessed by a female Hindu, whether acquired before or after the commencement of the Act, became her absolute property.

( 5 ) TAKING advantage of this provision, the defendants inter alia raised the defence that the suit was not maintainable, as a reversioner could not challenge the adopti