VAIDYA, J.:- These two appeals involve an interesting question regarding the validity of an auction sale of the suit lands which originally belonged to the joint family of the respondents and Dattatary Govind Kulkarni, the husband of respondent No. 1 and the father of respondents 2 to 6, and which were allotted at a partition made prior to the auction sale which was held for recovering the Tagai loan advanced in respect of other lands belonging to the family to the said Dattatray.

2. The allegations made by the respondent-plaintiffs can be briefly summarised as under:-

3. Plaintiff No. 1 is the wife and plaintiffs Nos. 2 to 6 are the sons of Dattatary Govind Kulkarni. Plaintiff No. 1 happens to be the second wife of Dattatray and Plaintiffs Nos. 2 and 3, who were minors when the suit was filed, are her sons from Dattatray. Plaintiffs Nos. 4 to 6 are the sons of Dattatray from his first wife. A partition was effected by Dattatray with a view to avoid future disputes under a registered partition deed, Exh. 79, on July 6, 1956. Under the said partition deed, the father, Dattatray, took Survey No. 140/1, admeasuring 13 acres and 13 gunthas and assessed at Rs. 2-8-0, and Survey N