The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation and applicability of the provisions of S. 30 of the Madras marumakkathyam Act, 1932, to determine the plaintiff's right to inherit the properties of her father, and the relevance of the extra-territorial operation of legislative enactments.

JUDGMENT :- This second appeal is directed against a preliminary decree for partition of a half share of the suit properties for the plaintiff, passed by the District Judge, Palghat, reversing the decree of the Munsiff, Alathur, dismissing her suit. The properties belonged to one Subramanya Pattar, a brahmin, a non-marumakkathayee In the year 1082, he married the plaintiff's mother Kalliani Amma, a marumakkathayi woman who lived in Trichur to the former Cochin State, and the plaintiff was born in the year 1084. The properties are situated in Palghat district which formed part of the former Presidency of Madras, and later of the State of Madras as it was before the reorganisation of States. Subramanya Pattar's marriage with Kalliani Amma was dissolved in the year 1087 and afterwards he married the first defendant, a woman of his own caste. He died in the year 1129. The plaintiff's claim to a half share is based on S. 30 of the Madras marumakkathyam Act, 1932, the relevant part of which reads as follows :

"30. (1) On the death intestate of a male not being a marumakkathayi

(i) who -

(a) has, before the date on which this Act comes into force, contracted a marriage with a marumakkathayi female which ii valid under Section 4; or

* * * *

and

(ii) who has left surviving him by such marriage or marriages one or more of the following relations, namely : -

(a) a widow or widows,

(b) children,

(c) lineal descendants in the female line through deceased daughters, such relation or relations shall be entitled, if the intestate has also left relations who are heirs according to the personal law by which he is governed, to one-half of his property which is separate or self-acquired and if the intestate has left no such heirs, to the whole of such property :

Provided that the reasonable funeral expenses of the intestate shall first be deducted from such separate or self-acquired property.

2. The property devolving on the relations referred to in sub-cls. (a), (b) and (c) or Cl. (ii) of Sub-S. (1) shall be distributed among them in accordance with the rules contained in Cls. (i), (iii), (iv) and (v) of S. 20 and Explns. I and II to that section."

Under S. 20, where the deceased has left a widow and a child, each is entitled to a half share of his properties. The question for decision depends on whether the Act, particularly S. 30, is applicable. Section 30 was contended to be inapplicable, for the reason that at the time the succession opened, the plaintiff was not a marumakkathayi, because she was then governed, not by the Marumakkathayam Law but by the Cochin Nair Act which was in force at the time, and that she was not in the State of Madras. The contention is palpably unsound. The Act has by S. 3(e) defined, marumakkathayam as "the system of inheritance in which descent is traced in the female line" and by S. 3(f) a marumakkathayi as "a person governed by the Marumakkathayam law of inheritance. The plaintiff fulfils this condition. The Cochin Nair Act of 1095 has, as the Madras Marumakkathayam Act also has done, only defined and amended in certain respects the law relating to marriage, intestate succession, partition etc., applicable to persons governed by the Marumakkathayam Law of inheritance and for that reason alone, it is futile to contend, that the plaintiff was not a marumakkathayi. The Cochin Nair Act of 1113 was enacted only to consolidate and amend the earlier enactment. There is nothing in S.30 which makes it necessary, that the marumakkathayi should also belong to the State of Madras and it is on S. 1(2) of the Act, that the decision of this part of the case depends. 3. Section 1(2) is in the following terms : "(2) It (the Act) shall apply-

(a) to all Hindus in the Presidency of Madras who are governed by the Marumakkathayam law of inheritance ;

(b) to all Hindus outside the said Presidency governed by the said law, in respect of properties within it ; and

(c) to all Hindu males, whether governed by the said law or not, who have contracted o

Click Here to Read the rest of this document