Somasundaram, J. - This is an appeal against the order of Ismail, J., in an application by the appellant, a mother, under the Guardian and Wards Act (hereinafter called the Act), for custody of her female child, Mary Charmine Martin, aged 14, from the respondent, the putative father, after a declaration that she is the natural guardian. The parties are Anglo-Indians, professing the Roman Catholic faith. They live at Royapuram, within the Madras City limits. When the appellant was barely 17 years of age, the respondent, who is her mother’s sister’s husband, seduced her. This was in the year 1950. R.W. 2, Mrs. Martin, his wife, being frail, fickleminded and sickly, could not prevent this illicit intimacy between these two. The appellant became more and more involved, and she gave birth to the female child with whom we are now concerned on 8th September, 1955. She lived with the respondent till the year 1963, and during this period, she was illtreated and beaten occasionally by the respondent when he was under the influence of drink to which he was addicted. Too often he was in financial difficulties and impecunious circumstances. Two of the maternal aunts of the appellant, Mrs. Benni

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