1. This second appeal is directed against the judgment and decree dated 16.11.2001, passed in A.S.No.102 of 2001, on the file of the Principal District Court, Erode, reversing the judgment and decree dated 31.8.2000, passed in O.S. No.5 of 1995, on the file of the Principal District Munsif Court, Erode.

2. Parties are referred to as per their rankings in the trial Court.

3. Suit for declaration and permanent injunction.

4. The case of the plaintiffs, in brief, is that the suit properties are the ancestral properties of the plaintiffs and the third defendant is their father and he has no interest in the welfare of the family and doing speculative business and thereby, got indebted to various persons and failed to protect the interest of the family and accordingly, at the intervention of the panchayatdars, an oral partition was effected in the family properties of the parties and accordingly, the plaint A schedule properties were allotted to the plaintiffs and the plaint B schedule properties were allotted to the fourth defendant and his wife, giving life interest to them and thereafter absolutely to the plaintiffs and subsequently, the parties had entered into a partition lis