SINGARAVELU, J.

1. The plaintiffs and the 2nd defendant are the appellants while defendants 3 to 5 are the Cross-Objectors. The plaintiffs, who are brothers, filed the suit C.S. No. 107 of 1970 for partition and separate possession of their 2/15th share in the suit propertis and for accounting of the family business from defendants 3 and 4.

2. The averments in the plaint are briefly as follows:— The plaintiffs and defendants 6 and 7 are the sons of the 2nd defendant C. Shanmugham Chettiar. Defendants 3 and

4 are the brothers of the 2nd defendant and they are the sons of one Kothandarama Chettiar, who died in 1970 leaving his widow the 1st defendant Valliammal. The 5th defendant is the son of the 3rd defendant. The plaintiffs and the defendants belonged to a trading family at Madras started by the great grand-father late Egappa Chettiar, who died in about 1920 leaving two sons Kannimuthu Chettiar and Kothandarama Chettiar the plaintiffs and the defendants belonging to Kothandarama Chettiar branch.

3. The plaintiffs and the defendants were members of a Hindu joint family and there was no division of the assets of the family business. The plaintiffs grandfather, Kothandarama