common question for consideration.

Two villages Sivandanur and Vallam, which were originally owned or formed part of the Zamin Estate of Chookampatti

were notified and taken over by the Government under the Estates Abolition Act. The advance compensations

amounting to Rs. 10, 980 and Rs. 7,605 have been deposited for these two villages respectively before the Abolition

Tribunal. The District Board of Tirunelveli, as the manager of a Choultry at Courtallam, laid claim to these compensation

amounts as a creditor and their right was disputed by the respresentatives-in-title of the purchasers of these two villages,

the purchases having taken place as far back as 1868. The Tribunal has upheld the claim of the District Board to rank

as a creditor as regards the compensation amounts and has apportioned the amount in deposit between the claimant and

the objector. It is the correctness of the basis on which this apportionment has been effected by the Tribunal that is in

controversy in the appeals before us.

One Mohammad Ameer Khan had instituted O.S. No. 23 of 1866 on the file of th