S. Ramachandra Iyer, C.J.-

This Second Appeal raises a question of some importance as to the construction of section 14 (1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (which we shall sometimes refer to also as the Act). The facts giving rise to this litigation are not now in dispute. One Somasundara Odayar, a resident of Poongavur village in Thanjavoor Dt., died sometime before the year 1937, leaving him surviving his widow, Sellathachi and two daughters, Kuppammal and Punithavalli Ammal, the last of them being the first respondent to this appeal. The properties left by Somasundara were inherited by his widow and were in her possession on the date when the Act came into force. Punithavalli Ammal was a disappointment to her mother, she having left her husband in the year 1947 to live with her paramour. Disputes even arose between them and Sellathachi had to file a suit in the year 1948 and that successfully to restrain her daughter and her paramour from interfering with the properties in her possession.

While so, the Hindu Succession Act came into force on 14th June, 1956. By virtue of the provisions contained in section 14(1) of the Act, Sellathachi became the absolute owner of the properties

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