GEORGE VADAKKEL, J.:- That the plaintiff is entitled to 3/8 share in the properties left by his consanguine brother Muhammad Ghani Rawther, is not disputed before us. The dispute is as to whether Muhammad Ghani Rawther left behind him any properties in which the plaintiff could claim 3/8 share. According to the plaintiff the four documents, Exts. B-1, B-4, B-6 and B-7, could not operate on the properties of Muhammad Ghani Rawther for two reasons, namely, that those documents evidence gifts in violation of the Muslim Law and that those documents, if at all executed, have been executed by Muhammad Ghani Rawther at a time when he was not mentally competent to execute the same. The lower court accepted the plaintiff's case and passed a preliminary decree for partition and defendants Nos. 2 to 4 have come up in appeal. The first defendant died while the suit was pending trial before the lower court.

2. The first defendant is the widow of deceased Muhammad Ghani Rawther who died on 18th December 1966; the 2nd defendant is the daughter of the first defendant and Muhammad Ghani Rawther; the 3rd defendant is the second defendant's husband; the 4th defendant is a distant cousin of Mu