This is an appeal brought by defendants 1, 4 and 5 from a preliminary decree for partition and accounts passed by the District Court of North Arcot. The suit was originally brought by the first respondent in the Court of the District Munsiff at Arni but as the value of the properties involved was found to be beyond the pecuniary jurisdiction of that Court the plaint was returned to be presented to the proper Court and was later filed in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Vellore from where it was transferred to the District Court.

The relationship of the parties to one another will appear from the following genealogical table:

The family originally lived in a village called Vallam, North Arcot District, but migrated more than sixty years ago to the village of Oorkudi in the same district during the lifetime of Pasam Lingappa Naidu, the common ancestor who died in the nineties of the last century. It is common ground, that the family then owned lands and houses both at Vallam and at Oorkudi, and it is also in evidence that Lingappa Naidu was doing some money lending on a small scale and acquired some properties. Under the management of the first defendant after