1. The Second Appeal was admitted on 1st April 2004 on the following substantial questions of law:

(a) Whether provisions of Section 2184 of the Portuguese Civil Code still continue in force and are available in the facts of the case, more particularly as the Deed of Exchange was executed on 24/12/1971 after the Transfer of Property Act, 1954 was brought in force in Goa?

(b) Whether partition which is merely severance of joint status cannot be effected orally and has necessarily to be a written document?

2. I have heard the learned Counsel on both sides at some length. Mr Nadkarni for the appellants, the original defendants, has constructed, if I might say so, a compelling case on the questions of law as framed. The argument is sophisticated and relentlessly logical. The edifice of his argument is, however, considerably weakened, as we shall see, by the serious lacunae in the material adduced by the defendants. This has a direct, albeit possibly unintended and, from the defendants’ perspective, an unfortunate consequence when it comes to these questions of law.

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