Sethuraman, J.

1. The defendants in O.S. No. 524 of 1970 in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Salem, are the appellants. There was one Balakrishna Chettiar, who had three sons Ramanathan Chettiar, Narayana Chettiar and Nandagopal Chettiar. There was a partition between Balakrishna Chettiar, and his sons on 1st March, 1925, under Exhibit B-2. It is enough to mention that with reference to the suit property it was allotted to Narayanan and Nandagopal. Balakrishnan is no more, and Ramanathan went away to Kumbakonam. Narayanan and Nandagopal were thereafter carrying on business in textiles in Salem. They became heavily indebted in or about the year 1939 and one of the creditors filed an insolvency petition I. P. No. 6. of 1939, against them. At that stage, there was an arrangement with the creditors and the creditors agreed to take 50 per cent, of the amount due to them. The said property along with some stock in trade belonging to Narayana and Nandagopal was transferred to one G. C. Subramaniam Chettiar for a sum of Rs. 16,500. Subramaniam Chettiar undertook to discharge all the debts by selling the stock in trade. He actually discharged all the debts. At the time of the tr