JUDGMENT :- The above second appeal has been preferred by the plaintiff against the decree of the learned Subordinate Judge of Tiruchirapalli, who affirmed that of the learned District Munsif, Karur.

2. The suit was one for partition and separate possession, the plaintiff claiming that the suit properties were joint family properties and that he was entitled to a 1/8th share therein. The 2nd defendant in the suit is his father. The 1st defendant is the father of the 2nd defendant and the 3rd defendant is another son of the 1st defendant, Defendants 4 and 5 are the sons of the 2nd defendant by his second wife.

3. The principal defence in the suit was that the plaintiff was not the son of the 2nd defendant. On behalf of the defendants, it was alleged that though the plaintiff's mother, Ponnammal, has been married to the 2nd defendant in 1930, she was having illicit connections with her sister's husband, Ponnuswami Pillai, that she left the house of the defendants even immediately after the marriage, that the 2nd defendant at no time had access to the said Ponnammal, that the said Ponnammal was divorced according to the caste system, that there was no relationship of husband an