1. The plaintiff is the appellant. The suit was for redemption of Ext. A-1 mortgage, dated 24th May 1880 executed by Krishna Menon, who was a karnavan of the tarwad of the plaintiff and defendants 26 to 28, to one Cherotti Amma and two others for Rs. 1,500. There was a partition among the mortgagees. Cherotti Amma's rights under the mortgage became vested in the 28th defendant and others. Defendants 1 to 16 are the legal representatives of the original mortgagees.

2. The plaintiffs case was that he was entitled to redeem the mortgage as the karnavan of the tarwad, Sekhara Menon, assigned the right to redeem the mortgage to him and also on the ground that he was a co-owner of the property sought to be redeemed.

3. The defendants contended that the plaintiff was incompetent to represent the tarwad and claim relief on behalf of the tarwad, that there was no assignment of the right to redeem by the karnavan as alleged, that the tarwad consisted of the descendants of one Ittirivu Amma also, that the karnavan of the tarwad was one Sankara Menon of Ittirivu Amma's branch, that he alone was competent to institute a suit for redemption and that the suit was bad for non joinder of