The main legal point established in the judgment is that the absence of registration can render a marriage invalid, as per the provisions of the Travancore Kshatriya Act, impacting the rights of the parties involved.

1. The first plaintiff is the appellant and the sole defendant, the respondent. The suit was for declaration of title and possession over A & B schedule properties. The properties originally belonged to one Ammalu Kovilamma She was a kshatriya woman. She died intestate. The first plaintiff had married her. He is a Namboodiri. According to him, he is entitled to rights in the property as an heir of his deceased wife. The respondent is the brother of deceased Ammalu Kovilamma. The trial Court decreed the suit upholding the appellant's claim to the property as an heir of Ammalu Kovilamma In appeal by the defendant, the decree of the trial Court was set aside on the ground that the appellant could not claim, to be an heir to Ammalu Kovilamma since the marriage was not registered. Hence this second appeal.

2. The only substantial question of law that arises in this appeal is whether the marriage between a Namboodiri male and a kshatriya female is invalid for want of registration.

3. The short question raised in the appeal can be disposed of with reference to S 3(b) of the Travancore Kshatriya Act. I read the section with the third proviso:

"3 The conjugal union of

xx x x

(b) a Kshatriya male or female with a non-kshatriya female or male, as the case may be, where such union is permissible according to recognised usage, shall be deemed to be a valid marriage for the purpose of this Regulation, if registered in the manner hereinafter provided for:

x x x x Provided further, that all marriages in force on the date of the commencement of this Regulation shall be valid irrespective of registration."

The section is clear in its import. It states that a marriage between a kshatriya female and a non-ksbatriya male, if such union is permissible according to recognised usage, shall be deemed to be a valid marriage for the purpose of this regulation, if registered in the manner hereinafter provided for. In this case though there was a marriage, it was not registered. A plain reading of the section is enough to hold that there was no valid marriage between the first plaintiff and the deceased Ammalu Kovilamma. However, the appellant's counsel submits that the words "shall be deemed to be" import a fiction and registration is insisted only as a mode of proof. Absence of registration, according to him. will not render the marriage invalid. I am afraid, this submission is self-destructive. When you import a fiction, you try to make something which is not real, real. In other words, the fiction imported in a provision or statute confers reality or validity to something which it lacks in the absence of that fiction. But for the deeming provision in the section, a marriage between a kshatriya female and a non-kshatriya male will not be valid, for the consequences of the marriage to flow; it is the fact or registration that makes the marriage valid and the consequences of the marriage to follow; one of the consequences being the right of the husband to succeed to bis wife's property. If the marriage had been valid, the appellant would have been an heir of Ammalu Kovilamma. Absence of registration robs him of the right to claim heirship to his wife's property. The element of registration was designedly introduced to safeguard the interests of persons belonging to two different sects. Insistence of registration is to give validity for the marriage; it is not a mere ritual as is contended by the appellant's counsel. It has a set purpose. That purpose will be defeated if marriages between a kshatriya female and a non-kshatriya male is held to be valid in the absence of registration. T seek support for this conclusion from third proviso under which marriages in force on the date of commencement of the Regulation are held to be valid irrespective of registration. The intention was to make marriages solemnised till then valid without registration and to emphasise the need for registration to make marriages valid subsequent to the passing of the Regulati