Govinda Menon, J.-The first defendant in O.S. No. 15 of 1947 on the file of the Sub-Court, Palghat, has appealed against the preliminary decree whereby redemption was ordered of a mortgage for Rs. 35,000 without a direction for payment of the major portion of the amount claimed by him in the suit, as a condition precedent to redemption. There is very little dispute with regard to the facts of the case and the point for determination is mainly one of law.

A usufructuary mortgage, Exhibit A-1, dated 14th April, 1932, is by plaintiffs. 1 and 2 in favour of the father of the first defendant who then represented a joint Hindu family and it is an admitted fact now that the first defendant is the representative of the mortgagee family. Defendants 2 to 5 are the tenants claiming fixity of tenure and we are not concerned with their claims in the present appeal The third plaintiff is the executor under the will of one Raman Nair. Plaintiffs 1 and 2 executed a puisne usufructuary mortgage on the 4th April, 1946, in favour of this Raman Nair and his wife authorising them to redeem and recover possession of the properties mortgaged under Exhibit A-1. The mortgage under Exhibit A-1 was in respec

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