RAJAMANNAR, C. J. :-

These two appeals arise out of O. S. No. 65 of 1949 filed in the court of the Subordinate Judge of Madurai, by Ratnam alias Kadir Bibi Ammal. She is the daughter of one Mahomed Abba Hussain Rowther who died on the 1st of May 1938. The deceased father of the plaintiff was the son of Mahomed Meera Rowther who had a brother, Nainakhan Rowther, and the contesting defendants 1 and 2 are the sons of Meerasa Rowther, the son of the aforesaid Nainakhan Rowther. The suit was filed for partition of the suit properties which are alleged to have been left by Abba Hussain Rowther, the plaintiff claiming a half share.

2. The defendants, other than defendants 1 and 2, were mainly alienees of portions of the suit properties from defendants 1 and 2. The main plea with which we are concerned in this appeal raised by defendants 1 and 2 in their written statement was that by immemorial custom and ancient usage, the family of the plaintiff and defendants 1 and 2 had been following the Hindu Law of Property and succession and not the Muhammadan law of succession, that the properties had been enjoyed as Hindu joint family properties by the plaintiffs father and defendants 1 an