1. The plaintiff is the appellant herein. The suit was filed by the plaintiff for partition.

2. The case of the plaintiff was that the property originally belonged to one Annamalai Chetty, who had three sons and in the partition that took place amongst three sons, the suit property was allotted to the share of Veerana Chetty, the second son of Annamalai Chetty. The said Veerana Chetty, had two sons and the plaintiff is the son born to the first wife and therefore, he is entitled to 4/9 share in the suit property.

3. The respondents/defendants filed a statement admitting that the properties were allotted to the share of Veerana Chetty, but denied the status of the plaintiff, as a son of Veerana Chetty and disputed the marriage of Veerana Chetty with Lakshmi Ammal, the mother of the plaintiff. It is further stated that in the year 1951, Veerana Chetty, sold a portion of the property in favour of his wife Ponnammal and thereafter, settled the remaining portion in favour of first defendant represented by his wife-Ponnammal, and therefore, the first defendant and Ponnammal became the owner of the property. After the death of the said Ponnammal, the defendants became absolute