Proper opportune for considering rights of the claimants.

One Pasala Satyanarayana, who was the permanent village head- , man of the village of Jagannadhapuram in Tadepalligudem taluk, died on nth January, 1941, leaving behind him two minor sons. On 7th May, 1941, the eldest son was registered as an office-holder under the provisions of the Madras Hereditary Village Offices Act, 1895 (Act III of 1895) and one Subbaraju was appointed as deputy. On 6th June, 1944, the minor registered office-holder died and it was necessary to make a fresh appointment to the office. In the meanwhile the younger son had also died with the result that the progeny of Satyanarayana had become extinct. Thereafter the widow of Satyanarayana, after getting the authority of Satyanarayana’s father, adopted the present petitioner to her husband on 22nd June, 1944. In these circumstances, from 22nd June, 1944, the present petitioner became a member of the family of the deceased Satyanarayana as his adopted son. The widow, acting as the guardian of her adopted son, applied for the registration of the office of village headman in the name of the adopted son, the minor petitioner, and for the continuance of the deputy till the petitioner became a major. Two other persons also applied for being appointed to the office of village headman, both of them claiming to be the nearest heir to the deceased office-holder. The Revenue Authorities recognised the claim of the petitioner and registered him as the village headman. Subsequent to that, the second respondent filed V.O.S. No.1 of 1945 on the file of the Court of the Revenue Divisional Officer, Bhimavaram, claiming that he was the person entitled to succeed to the office and that the adoption of the petitioner was neither true nor valid. The Revenue Divisional Officer decreed the suit and on appeal therefrom by the petitioner, the Collector of West Godavari, in R.S.A.No.1 of 1947, set aside the order of the Revenue Divisional Officer, following the decision of the Privy Council in Anant Bhikappa v. Shankar Ramchandra1; on the ground that the posthumous adoption of the petitioner related back to the date of the death of the minor registered holder and that had the effect of divesting every other heir. The result of this was that the petitioner was confirmed as the village headman. The second respondent took up the matter to the Board of Revenue. The Board, by their proceedings, dated 17th October, 1949, held that the order of the Collector could not stand. The reason given was that the decision of the Privy Council related to the devolution of properties which can have no application to offices under the Government. Such being the case, at the time the vacancy occurred the present petitioner had not been adopted. On these grounds the order of the Collector was set aside and that of the Revenue Divisional Officer restored. The above application is for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the order of the Board of Revenue registering the second respondent as the village headman.

Under section 10, sub-section (2) of the Madras Hereditary Village Offices Act, 1895, the succession shall devolve on a single heir according to the general custom and rule of primogeniture governing succession to impartible zamindaris in Southern India. Therefore the right to succeed to the office should depend! upon the custom and rules of primogeniture according to Hindu Law prevalent in Southern India. According to the decision in the Shivaganga case (Katama Nachiar v. The Rajah of Shivaganga)1the question of succession to an impartible estate on the death of the owner of the estate depends upon the rule of Hindu Law which governs the succession to partible estates, and therefore what has to be considered is who would be the successor if the estate had been partible instead of being an impartible one. The only difference is that the rule of primogeniture applies. Such being the case, section 10, sub-section (2) of Madras Act III of 1895 only lays down the general rule which should