S. Vimala, J.

1. With 131 Documents on the side of the Plaintiffs and 43 Documents on the side of the Defendants, 98 Documents as Court Exhibits along with evidence of P3 (PW1), P1 (PW2), D6 (DW1), Niranjan Bhatt (DW2), Major Parthasarathy (DW3) and D1 (DW4) awaited the decision of this Court, having remained alive for 22 years. The dispute is between the Legal Heirs of S.T. Venkatranga Iyer born of the year 1877 and died on 18.1.1948 and the Legal Heirs of his brother S.T. Sadasivan born of the year 1899 and died on 29.1.1992, i.e. 44 years after the death of S.T. Venkatranga Iyer.

2. The Suit in C.S. No. 708 of 1992 has been filed for a declaration that Plot Nos. 6, 7 & 8, Bragadambal Road, Nungambakkam, Madras and the House, Garage and Out-house therein, are Joint Family Properties of the Plaintiffs and that the Will of S.T. Sadasivan is void and also for Partition and separate possession of all properties of S.T. Sadasivan.

3. Petition in O.P. No. 243 of 1992 has been filed by the deceased K.R. Ramamani, Major General Chander Govindasamy and R.K.S. Shetty, the three named Executors under the Will and Codicil of S.T. Sadasivan, for grant of Probate of the last Will and Testament dated 10.12.1990 and the Codicil dated 16.12.1991 of S.T. Sadasivan. Since Caveats were filed objecting to the grant of Probate, the said O.P. has been converted into T.O.S. No. 11 of 1992. The only Defendants in T.O.S. No. 11 of 1992 are 3rd & 8th Plaintiffs in C.S. No. 708 of 1992.

4. The Executors of the last Will and Codicil of S.T. Sadasivan have filed a Suit in C.S. No. 1578 of 1992, under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, against all the Plaintiffs in C.S. No. 708 of 1992 as well as Defendants 1 to 3 in C.S. No. 708 of 1992, seeking the relief of recovery of possession.

5. A Petition in O.P. No. 784 of 1992 has been filed by S. Govindaraj (3rd Plaintiff in C.S. No. 708 of 1992), for removal of the Executors under Section 301 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, alleging acts of misfeasance and malfeasance against them.

Plaint averments in C.S. No. 708 of 1992:

6. S.T. Venkatranga Iyer (hereinafter referred to as STV) and S.T. Sadasivan (hereinafter referred to as STS) were brothers, out of whom, the former is the elder. S.T. Venkatranga Iyer had no issues and therefore, he adopted the son of his brother S.T. Sadasivan, i.e. the First Plaintiff, namely, Thiagarajan as his son. S.T. Sadasivan had two sons and two daughters, of whom, Plaintiffs 1 & 3 are the sons and 8th Plaintiff and the First Defendant are the daughters. The 4th Defendant is the husband of the First Defendant and Defendants 2 & 3 are the sons of the First Defendant. Defendants 5 & 6 are the named Executors of the Will.

6.1. STS was a reputed banker. He was the Co-Founder of Indian Overseas Bank along with Sri M. Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettiar in the year 1937 and functioned as General Manager of the Bank till 1944, after which, he became the Deputy General Manager of United Commercial Bank, which later on, became UCO Bank.

6.2. S. Thiagaraja Iyer and his son STV, constituted themselves into a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), by birth of STV in 1877. Thereafter, STS became a Coparcener, upon his birth in 1899. After the death of S. Thiagaraja Iyer in 1901, STV became the karta of the HUF. Later, 3rd Plaintiff and 1st Plaintiff became Coparceners of HUF upon their birth in 1926 & 1931 respectively. The Ancestral properties consisted of 6.41 acres of Agricultural land in Valavanur Village.

6.3. Apart from Agricultural operations, the HUF commenced Oil Distributorship business under 'Asiatic Petroleum Company' which later became 'Burmah Shell Oil Storage and Distribution Company'. With these funds, the HUF was able to marry off the 5 daughters of the family and also started acquiring further Agricultural lands in the name of STV, in Valavanur, Koliyanoor and Salampalayam Villag