RAJAGOPALAN, J.:-

It was common ground that the four items of properties, a fractional share in which Meenakshi Sundarammal, the plaintiff in O.S. N.23 of 1945, and her daughter, Shanmuga Sundarammal, the plaintiff in O.S. No.24 of 1945, claimed belonged to Appavoo Pillai. Appavoo died in 1922. He had three sons, Kannuswami, Arumugam and Chinnaswami and a daughter, Ponnammal, who predeceased him. Ponnammal had three sons Neelamegam, Muthukrishnan and Ramaswami, Meenakshi Sundarammal was one of the two daughters of Ponnammal; and Meenakshi Sundarammal married her maternal uncle Arumugam. On the date of Appavoos death Arumugam and his wife Meenakshi Sundarammal had two daughters, Kanakavalli and Shanmuga Sundarammal; a third daughter named Baby was born some time after Appavoos death; they had no sons. Of these three daughters, Kanakavalli died in 1938 before she was 18. Of the three sons of Appavoo, only Kannuswami had both sons and daughters. Neither Arumugam and Chinnaswami had any sons.

2. The genuineness of Ex. P-1 as the last will and testament of Appavoo executed by him shortly before his death was never in dispute. The portions of Ex. P-1 relevant for purposes of these