Periakulam, Theni District was the ancestral property of late Neelakanda Sharma. He married Chellammal. They had three children, namely, a daughter, Seethalakshmi and two sons, namely, N.Balasubramanian and N.Mahadevan. Mahadevan died as a bachelor at a very young age. Seethalakshmi also died, leaving behind her daughters Lakshmi Krishnan and Sundaravalli, who are the 1st and 2nd Plaintiffs in the suit. N.Balasubramanian is the 1st Defendant in the suit. His two sons Neelakandan and Varadharajan are the 2nd and 3rd Defendants in the suit and they are the Appellants herein. After the death of Chellammal, Neelakanda Sharma married Lakshmiammal. Through her, he had eight children, namely, the 3rd Plaintiff Krishnan, 4th Plaintiff Gopalan, 5th Plaintiff Sekaran, 6th Plaintiff Saraswathy, 7th Plaintiff Prabavathi, 8th Plaintiff Muthu Narayanan, 9th Plaintiff Bagyalakshmi and the father of the 10th Plaintiff, who died, by name, Seshan. The Plaintiff filed the suit, seeking undivided 9/10 share in the suit property. They claimed it on the basis that the property was ancestral in nature and the father Neelakanda Sharma died intestate. Consequently, they claimed that each one of his children was entitled to an undivided equal share in the suit property.
