Ismail, J.-The plaintiff in O.S. No. 119 of 1966 on the file of the Court of the Additional Subordinate Judge of Cuddalore is the appellant herein. He represented by his father as next friend on the allegation that he was a person of unsound mind, instituted the suit in forma pauperis for possession of the suit properties, after setting aside several alienations and the mortgage executed in favour of the second defendant, and for future mesne profits.

2. The claim of the plaintiff-appellant was that the appellant is one of the two sons of Krishna Reddiar who had four daughters and the family owned extensive properties; the appellant became mentally unsound in or about 1956 and used to behave in an unnatural manner and used to talk incoherently; his father and his elder brother Ramaswami Reddiar got him treated for his illness and for some time he was treated by various local native physicians and also at Salem, and finding that he did not improve, he was taken to Vellore and there he was treated at a hospital (Bahayam Mental Hospital) undertaking treatment only for mentally unsound people and he was there for about 1½ months during which period he even attempted to commit suicide; thereafter at the suggestion of that hospital authorities, the appellant was taken to the Mental Hospital at Kilpauk, Madras where he was kept for five or six months and he underwent treatment there ; though he appeared to have become better after his stay at the Mental Hospital at Kilpauk, there was in reality no improvement at all and after he was taken away from the Mental Hospital at Kilpauk, he was taken to Courtallam where he was treated by native doctors and where he had his bath at the falls and all these happened "between 1956 or 1957 and 1960; after the appellant returned from Courtallam, he appeared to be a little better and thereafter he suggested to his father that he would like to have his properties divided and allotted to him and that he would attend to cultivation; believing that by effecting a partition of the family properties and giving the appellant his share of the properties, he would improve further and get into normal ways, a partition was effected between the appellant his father and his elder brother evidenced by a registered deed dated 30th November, 1961 marked as Exhibit B-3 in the present proceedings ; under the said partition, the properties set out in the schedule to the plaint were allotted to the appellant’s share and the house alone was left in common amongst the parties; though the partition was effected with the best of intentions, namely, that the appellant would improve and would come to his normal ways, the appellant’s father and brother were thoroughly disappointed because the appellant did not improve at all and his unsoundness of mind became worse and continued to be so since then.

3. The plaint thereafter narrates several alienations effected by the appellant herein and alleges that those alienations were not valid because they were executed by the appellant when he was not in a sound state of mind and the alienations were not supported by any consideration also. The plaint also put forward a contention that the defendants in the suit took advantage of the appellant’s mental state and got several transfers from him, none of which was supported by consideration and the documents were also obtained by undue influence. It was under these circumstances that the appellant’s father purported to institute the suit as his next friend for the reliefs referred to above and the plaint itself stated that the appellant was willing to pay such amounts as the vendees or the mortgages have actually paid for the necessities of the appellant.

4. Separate written statements were filed by defendants 1, 2 and 3. Each one of them contended that the suit as framed was not maintainable and the appellant was not a person of unsound mind and the suit by the next friend was unsustainable in law and on facts; apart from this, the aliena

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