Judgement

B. K. MUKHERJEA J. : This appeal, which has come before us on special leave, is directed against a judgment and decree of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court, dated 13-12-1949, affirming, with slight modification, those of the Subordinate Judge, Coimbatore, passed in O. S. 138 of 1945.

2. The suit was commenced by the plaintiff, who is respondent 1 in this appeal for specific allotment, on partition, of his one-third share in the properties described in the plaint, on the allegation that they were the joint properties of a family consisting of himself, his father, defendant 1, and his brother, defendant 2 and that he was entitled in law to one-third share in the same. It appears that the plaintiff and defendant 2, who are two brothers, are both sons of defendant 1 by his first wife who predeceased her husband. After the death of plaintiff s mother, the defendant 1 married again and his second wife is defendant 3 in the suit.

The allegations in the plaint, in substance, are that after the step-mother came into the house. the relation between the father & his sons became strained and as the father began to assert an exclusive title to the joint family property, denying a