Pandalai, J.

1. The plaintiff appeals from a decree of the learned District Judge of Ganjam dismissing his suit brought on six simple mortgages marked A, A-l, A-2, A-3, A-4, and A-5, executed by defendant 1 to him between September,1909 and July 1911 for a total sum of Rs. 2,000. Defendant 2 (respondent 2), the principal contesting defendant, is the* minor of defendant 1. The other defendants, of whom defendant 3 is a divided cousin by adoption of defendant 1, and defendants 4 to 9 are persons holding under defendant 3 were made pro forma: defendants. A number of formal defences were raised which were all found in favour of the plaintiff. The substantial defence on the merits was that the mortgages sued on were sham transactions made without consideration with the object of defeating any claims which defendant 3 might make to the property or the income on the basis of his adoption which defendant 1 was then denying. On this the learned Judge found in favour of the defence and hence dismissed the suit.

2. The main questions in the appeal are whether the mortgages sued on are supported by consideration and whether the defence that they were not so supported is open to defendant