Sankaran Nair, J.

1. The plaintiffs sue as the legal representatives of one Mottaya Goundan to recover possession of the plaint lands from the 1st Defendant, who held them as his lessee. The lease is admitted but the main contention is that the lands belonged to Mottaya Goundans wife, Ayyammal, from whose alleged heir, the 2nd defendant has purchased them and is now in possession. It is found by both the Courts that the properties were acquired with the profits earned by Mottaya Goundan and his wife, Ayyammal, in a trade which was carried on by both of them. Both the husband and wife were "equally working together". It is also stated that among the Padayachi community, to which Ayyammal and Mottaya Goundan belonged, the wife worked along with the husband "for the purpose of the maintenance of the family and development of the family properties." The District Munsif decided, however, that, according to the strict theory of the Hindu Smrithis even the separate property of a woman earned by her by mechanical arts is subject to her husbands control, and that, therefore, the money with which the plaint lands were acquired, was not Ayyammals peculium. He held that, though the prop