- (1.) This appeal by certificate granted by the High Court of Madras is directed against its judgment and decree modifying the decree passed by the District Judge.
(2.) The relevant fact for the determination of the points raised before us are as follows: The plaintiff, K. M. Viswanatha Pillai, appellant before us and hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff and K. M. Shanmugham Pillai, respondent before us and hereinafter referred to as the defendant, were originally members of a Joint Hindu Family. On June 29, 1953, the six brothers who constituted the Joint Hindu Family entered into a partition of the properties belonging to the Joint Family, evidenced by a registered document Ex. A-35. A motor bus MDH 662 fell to the share of the plaintiff. At the time of parition the permit was not in the name of the defendant and some proceedings for the transfer of the permit to his name were pending. Accordingly it was provided in the partition deed as follows: "As soon as its route permit and registration etc. are transferred in the name of Shanmugham Pillai, he shall have the same transferred in the name of the 4th individual of us, Viswanatha Pillai."
(3.) In September 1953, the permit was transferred in the name of the defendant. In April 1954, the plaintiff purchased two more vehicles namely, M. D. O. 1106 and M. D. H. 730, but the permits were obtained in the name of the defendant in whose name the vehicles were also actually acquired. As the defendant was going to Kuala Lumpur on business he executed a general power of attorney, Ex.A-55, in favour of the plaintiff. In this power of attorney the defendant admitted that the three buses above mentioned belonged to the plantiff and were plying in his name as requested by the plaintiff. Two more buses seem to have been acquired since then.;