JUDGMENT :- This second appeal raises an interesting question of law as to whether an adopted son who was adopted by a Hindu widow after the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, Central Act LXXVIII of 1956, came into force, would be entitled to rights of inheritance to the properties which the widow (the adoptive mother) took as an heir to her husband.

2. One Balayee Ammal succeeded to the properties of her husband, one Nallathambi. She made several alienations and Nallathambi's sisters (plaintiffs in the present litigation) instituted proceedings in 1951 and obtained a declaration that the alienations would not be binding on the reversioners after the lifetime of Balayee. She died on 17-1-1960 and Nallathambi's sisters have filed the present suit for recovery of possession of the properties from the alienees on the basis of the declaration secured in the prior litigation aforesaid.

3. Balayee appears to have adopted her younger sister's son, minor Ganapathi on 31-12-1959 and on the same day, she had also executed a registered deed of adoption acknowledging the said adoption. The contesting defendants, i.e., the alienees and their representatives, resisted the suit on the gr