Case: Saraswathi Ammal Vs. Jagadambal And Another

One Thangathammal who was a dasi (dancing girl) lived in the Tanjore district in Madras State and died possessed of some properties. She left her surviving three daughters, Saraswathi, Jagadambal and Meenambal. Jagadambal filed the suit out of which this appeal arises against her sisters for partition of the movable and immovable properties set out in the plaint and for allotment of a third share to her therein. She alleged that her mother was married to one Thyagaraja Pillai, that the properties in suit were the stridhanam properties of her mother who died intestate on 26th July, 1943, and that according to the law or custom of the community to which the parties belonged she and her sisters were entitled to share equally the properties of herAmmal, the 1st defendant contested the suit. She pleaded that her mother was not a married woman but a dasi who followed her hereditary occupation and was attached to Shri Saranatha Perumal temple at Tiruchuraj in the Tanjore district, that of the three daughters the plaintiff and the 2nd defendant married and lived with their husbands, while she (1st defendant) was duly initiated as a dasi in the said temple and remained unmarried and that according to the law and custom of the community, the mothers property devolved solely on her to the exclusion of the plaintiff and the 2nd defendant. The 2nd defendant supported the 1st defendants case. The material issue in the suit was issue No. 1 which was in these termsis the proper heir of Thangathammal. Whether according to custom as set up by the plaintiff, all the daughters are heirs, or according to the custom put forward by the 1st defendant, the unmarried daughters alone are entitled toSubordinate Judge dismissed the suit holding that Thangathammal was a dasi and not a married woman, that according to the custom of the dasi community in South India, a dasi daughter is regarded as a nearer heir to the mother than a married daughter and that the 1st defendant was entitled to remain in possession of the suit properties. Against this decision an appeal was taken to the High Court. The High Court reversed the decree of the Subordinate Judge and held that the custom pleaded by the 1st defendant was not proved and that the rule of propinquity of Hindu law as a rule of justice, equity and good conscience, governed the succession and the married and dasi daughters were equally entitled to the inheritance. It was further held that a dasi daughter was not in the status of a maiden or unmarried daughter for purposes of succession to stridhanam property. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court was granted under article 133 of the Constitution.

Court's reasoning:
After hearing the learned counsel for the appellant, we feel no hesitation in concurring with the decision of the High Court. It was contended that the High Court was in error in holding that the custom set up by the defendant was not proved. To prove the custom that a dasi daughter was a preferential heir and excluded her married sisters reliance was placed on the evidence of some members of the community and reference was also made to certain instances. The same kind of evidence was led by the plaintiff in support of her case. The evidence of both the parties on the issue of custom is of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character and from it no interference can be drawn of the existence of a uniform, certain and ancient custom prevailing in the community on thiscross-examination she admitted that she was deposing about the caste custom not from any specific instance in which the custom was observed but at the request of the defendant, and that she had heard of this custom from her elders whose names she did not disclose. She further admitted that she had an uncle living but she did not even ask him about the custom. The witness, it appears, knows nothing about the custom and is giving evidence in order to oblige theAmmal, the next witness in the case, is also a dasi. She deposed that her fathers mothers property devolved on her two dasi daughters on her death and that there was no married daughter in existence. This evidence is of a neutral character and is not of much use on the question of custom pleaded in the case. Apart from asserting that in this community dasis property devolves on her death only on the dasi daughters to the exclusion of married daughters, she cited the instance of Chellappa, a dasi of Srirangam. It was elicited in cross examination that Chellappa left a house and landed properties. For explanation is forthcoming why documentary evidence of revenue records about this instance has been withheld. Oral evidences add to instances which can be proved by documentary evidence cannot safely be relied upon to establish custom, when no satisfactory explanation for withholding the best kind of evidence is given. The last witness in the case is Rajamani Ammal, another dasi who does service in Sri Ranganathaswami temple. She also referred to the instance of Chellappa. She said that her jewels which were worth Rs. 1, 000 would pass on her death to her dasilearned counsel attempted to persuade us to hold the custom pleaded proved by the assistance of decisions given in analogous cases and by applying the principles of the rules said to have been enunciated in some of them. Those cases were decided on their own facts and in some of them a rule was enunciated that degraded people are a class by themselves and their degraded relations are preferential heirs to the undegraded ones. As already said, we cannot subscribe to the view that any such rule can be evolved merely on logical grounds. Its existence can only be justified on the basis of established custom. No trustworthy evidence has been led in this case to establish that the daughters of a dasi by marriage lose their right of inheritance and form a separateis well settled that custom cannot be extended by analogy. It must be established inductively, not deductively and it cannot be established by a priori methods. Theory and custom are antitheses, custom cannot be a matter of mere theory but must always be a matter of fact and one custom cannot be deduced from another. A community living in one particular district may have evolved a particular custom but from that it does not follow that the community living in another district is necessarily following the same custom.The last point taken by the learned counsel was that under Hindu law the 1st defendant as a maiden was entitled to preference over her married sisters. Defendant No. 1 was admittedly married to the idol and she has been on her own showing living a life of prostitution. The text of the Mitakshara dealing with the case of a virgin cannot be applied to her case. [Vide Tara v. Krishna [I.L.R. 31 Bom. 495.]]. It is inconceivable that when the sages laid down the principle of preference concerning unmarried daughters they would have intended to include a prostitute within the ambit of that text.