M. Chockalingam, J.

Challenge is made to a preliminary decree made in C.S.No.1211 of 1992, a suit for partition.

.2. The defendants are the appellants. The respondents/plaintiffs filed a suit, seeking division of the plaint schedule mentioned properties, claiming 1/5th share each with the allegations that they are the sons of Kabali Naidu and Dhanalakshmi, the first defendant in the suit; that while the defendants 2 to 4 are their sisters and defendants 5 and 6 are their brothers; that the suit property situate at No.515, Anna Salai, Vannia Teynampet, Madras-600 018, more fully described in the schedule to the plaint, originally belonged to Ranganayakiammal, the paternal grand mother of the plaintiffs and also defendants 2 to 6; that she died intestate on 24.08.1964 and thus, the properties devolved upon her husband Munuswamy Naidu and her only son Kabali Naidu; that Munuswamy Naidu and his son Kabali Naidu enjoyed the said property without any division as their ancestral property by throwing in into the hotchpotch of Hindu Undivided joint family; that it was never treated by them as their separate property, though they inherited the same through a female ancestor; that t