TMI Blog1993 (10) TMI 358X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... late Court of valid marriage arising out of prolonged living together of a man and woman as husband and wife. 2. Manthi, admittedly, had three sons one of them being Chinathambi. His legally wedded wife was one Pavayee. He also lived with another woman. whose name, too, was Pavayee. From the second Pavayee he had issues one of them being Ramaswamy. He sold his one-third share, which he received from his father, in 1971 to the appellant. This was resisted by descendants of other two branches. The appellant therefore filed suit for declaration and recovery of possession. Two main questions arose first if Ramaswamy was legitimate child of Chinathambi, second the property being ancestral and coparcenary property bequeathed by Manthi in favou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , her name or the name of her sons would have found mention in the will executed by Manthi, the father of Chinathambi. It was also found that when compromise was arrived between the members of the family on a suit filed by Chinathambi no reference was made either to Pavayee or to her offspring, namely, Ramaswamy. Reliance was also placed on the depositions of PW 6 and DW 4 in support of the conclusion that no legal marriage had come into being between Chinathambi and Pavayee No. 2. 4. What has been settled by this Court is that if a man and woman live together for long years as husband and wife then a presumption arises in law of legality of marriage existing between the two. But the presumption is rebuttable (see Gokal Chand v. Parvin K ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stated that Chinathambi and Pavayee did not live together. Since it was not disputed that Ramaswamy was born of Chinathambi and Pavayee who lived together as husband and wife since 1920 each of these circumstances was irrelevant and could not have resulted in rebutting the presumption. In our opinion the High Court was not justified in interfering with the findings of fact recorded by the First Appellate Court arrived at after appreciating the evidence on record. 5. In order to overcome the difficulty it was vehemently argued by the learned counsel for respondent that even if it is assumed that Pavayee was living with. Chinathambi since 1920 there being evidence on record to establish that her husband was alive when she came to live wit ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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