This Second Appeal arises out of a suit, Original Suit No. 24 of 1958, Sub-Court, Tiruchirapalli, filed by the appellants for recovery of possession of the suit properties and for mesne profits. The first plaintiff is a family trust, represented by the managing trustee, and the second plaintiff is a lessee from the first plaintiff under a lease deed, Exhibit A-1, dated 30th June, 1957. Their case is that the first defendant was lessee of the suit property for the past several years, that Exhibit A-2, dated 30th November, 1956, was last of the lease deeds, that the first defendant surrendered possession of the properties to the first plaintiff, after making an endorsement to the effect in the lease deed. Their further case is that even though the second defendant also joined the first defendant in the execution, of the lease deed, Exhibit A-2, he was merely a surety and that throughout, the first defendant alone actually cultivated the land and he alone was the sole lessee.

The defendants contested the suit on the ground inter alia that both of them were lessees, that the surrender by the first defendant was not true, that he made the endorsement on the misrepresentation by