JUDGEMENT:- The third defendant is the appellant. The suit property is stated to be a vacant site. The property originally belonged to the joint family of first and fourth defendants who are brothers. In their hands, it is admitted, it was ancestral property. The fourth defendant executed a deed styled (Matter in Tamil omitted-Ed.) on 27-9-1948 in favour of his brother, the first defendant, releasing his half share in the suit property. At the time when he executed that document, he was unmarried. Subsequently, the first defendant sold the property to the second defendant and from the second defendant the third defendant has purchased the same. The plaintiffs are the children of the fourth defendant and they have filed the suit for partition and separate possession of their share in the property on the ground that the release deed could not deprive them of their share in the property of the joint family. They also pleaded that the release deed was executed under coercion and undue influence and that it was also a sham and nominal document that never came into operation.

2. The trial Court held that the release deed Ex. B-3 was true and valid, that the suit is barred by res