M. Thanikachalam, J.

The plaintiff is the appellant.

2. The appellant as plaintiff had filed the suit O.S.No.1676/97 on the file of the II Additional City Civil Court at Madras, for partition and separate possession of his 1/6th share in the suit property, praying for a preliminary decree. It is the case of the plaintiff that his father Late K.M. Subramaniam had purchased the suit property, under a registered sale deed dated 11.1.1950. Thereafter, according to the plaintiff, his father was enjoying the same, being in possession, till he died intestate, in the year 1977.

3. The first defendant (since deceased) is the wife of K.M.Subramaniam i.e. the mother of the plaintiff and defendants 2 to 10. The averments made in the plaint would suggest, that the daughters of K.M. Subramaniam are not entitled to any share in the suit property, since they were already married before 1970, settled with their respective husbands. Thus, in a way, the plaintiff claiming that the suit property belonged to the family, as an ancestral one, (though not pleaded so) had claimed a share of 1/6th. Since the share is denied, according to the plaintiff, the suit has been filed, for the demarcation o