ORDER :- The first defendant is the petitioner. The suit is for declaration of the plaintiff's title to the suit property and for recovery of possession under a sale deed dated 9-7-1965 executed by Sivaprakasa and an exchange deed Ex. A. 2. The first defendant resisted the suit on the ground that he is in possession of the western half of the suit property, orginally under a usufructury mortgage dated 23-6-1962 and later under an agreement of sale by Sivaprakasa in his favour dated 22-8-1964. The first defendant contended that the agreement of sale was reduced to writing on stamp papers supplied by the vendor Sivaprakasa, that one Ratnasabapathi Piliai wrote the said agreement that one Ramalingam had attested it, that he purchased stamp papers in his name for completing the sale transaction, that he gave them to the vendor Sivaprakasa to get the sale deed written up on the stamp papers, that Sivaprakasa, instead of completing the sale transaction, sold the suit property to the plaintiff, and that, therefore, the plaintiff being a subsequent vendor has no title to the suit property.

2. The trial of the suit commenced and the first defendant examined himself as D. W. 1. In th