Case: Dwarampudi Nagaratnamba Vs. Kunuku Ramayya &amp; Another

1. One Venkatacharyulu was the Karta of a joint family consisting of himself and his four sons. The appellant was his concubine since 1945 until his death on February 22, 1949. By two registered deeds purporting to be sale deeds dated April 15, 1946, (Exts. A-1 and A-2), he transferred to the appellant certain properties belonging to the joint family. In 1947 after the execution of Exts. A-1 and A-2 there was a disruption of the joint family and a severance of the joint status between Venkatacharyulu and his sons. In 1954 his widow and sons instituted O. S. No. 12 of 1954 against the appellant for recovery of possession of the properties alleging that the documents dated April 15, 1946, were executed without consideration or for immoral purposes, and were void. The appellant instituted against his widow and sons O. S. No. 63 of 1954, asking for general partition of the joint family properties and for allotment to her of the properties conveyed by the two deeds. She also instituted O. S. No. 62 of 1954 against one of his sons and another person asking for damages and mesne profits for wrongful trespass on the properties. The trial Court dismissed O. S. No. 12 of 1954 and O. S. No. 62 of 1954 and decreed O. S. No. 63 of 1954. From these decrees appeals were preferred in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. The High Court confirmed the decree in O. S. No. 62/54, allowed the two other appeals, dismissed O. S. No. 63/54 and decreed O. S. No. 12/54 the decree for possession in respect of the properties covered by Ex. A-1 being conditional on payment by the respondents of the value of improvements made by the appellant to the properties. From the decrees passed by the High Court, the present appeals have been filed by special leave.

Court's reasoning:
4. Our findings are as follows :-Venkatacharyulu and the appellant were parties to an illicit intercourse. The two agreed to cohabit. Pursuant to the agreement each rendered services to the other.Her services were given in exchange for his promise under which she obtained similar services. In lieu of her services, he promised to give his services only and not his properties. Having once operated as the consideration for his earlier promise, her past services could not be treated under Section 2 (d) of the Indian Contract Act as a subsisting consideration for his subsequent promise to transfer the properties to her. The past cohabitation was the motive and not the consideration for the transfers under Exts. A-1 and A-2.The transfers were without consideration and were by way of gifts. The gifts were not hit by S. 6 (h) of the Transfer of Property Act, by reason of the fact that they were motivated by a desire to compensate the concubine for her past service6. Venkatacharyulu was free to make a gift of his own property to his concubine. The gifts under Exts. A-1 and A-2 were not hit by S. 6 (h) of the Transfer of Property Act.But the properties gifted under Exs. A-1 and A-2 were coparcenary properties. Under the Madras school of Mitakshara law by which Venkatacharyulu was governed, he had no power to make a gift of even his undivided interest in the coparcenary properties to his concubine. The gifts were therefore invalid7. The invalid gifts were not validated by the disruption of the joint family in 1947.After the disruption of the joint family, Venkatacharyulu was free to make a gift of his divided interest in the coparcenary properties to the appellant, but he did not make any such gift. The transfers under Exts. A-1 and A-2 were and are invalid. We find no ground for interfering with the decrees passed by the High Court.