1. These second appeals by the same person, the 1st defendant in O.S. No. 685 of 1121 and the 11th defendant in O.S. No. 424 of 1121, both of the Vaikom Munsiff's Court, are against the preliminary decrees for partition which the courts below have concurred, in passing against him in respect of, so far as we are now concerned, the same property, described as items 1 and 2 in the plaint in the latter suit and as items 1, 2 and 3 in the former. The plaintiff in O.S No. 424 (who is the 2nd defendant in O.S. No. 685) has been given a 13/48th share, while the three plaintiffs in O.S. No. 685 (who are defendants 6, 7 and 8 in O.S. No. 424) have been given a half share for themselves and defendants 4 and 5.

2. Although the two suits were tried together I prefer to deal with them one by one. I shall first consider O.S. No. 424 in which suit the evidence was recorded. The appeal therefrom is S.A. No. 549 of 1962.

3. In this suit, both sides claim under one Makkar whom, for the purposes of the suit, they are content to regard as the sole owner of the property, the fact that he was, in truth, only a purchaser from a co-owner being, for those purposes, a matter of no consequence. Mak