Children of void, voidable marriage entitled for valid share in property: SC

Muthuswamy, who died in 1982, was claimed to have married thrice and the case was brought to court by the son of Ammasi Ammal, legally wedded wife of Muthusamy Gounder at the time of his death.

The Supreme Court has said children of void or voidable marriages of a common ancestor would be treated as legitimate for the purpose of deciding a valid share in the property.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and S V N Bhatti, in its judgment on Friday, rejected as untenable an argument of Subramani, one son of Ammasi Ammal, legally wedded wife of Muthusamy Gounder that the status of Raja Gounder and others as the children of Muthusamy (deceased) was without evidence.

"In the present case, the claim as a coparcenary is unacceptable for want of evidence on the factum of the marriage of Muthusamy Gounder with Appellant No 2 and Respondent No 2 (two other women); the courts below ought to have considered the relief from admitted circumstances on record," the bench said.

The court set aside the judgments by the Madras High Court.

It allowed a preliminary decree of partition for the plaint schedule properties, and allotted equal share to children in the notionally partitioned share of Muthusamy Gounder.

Muthuswamy, who died in 1982, was claimed to have married thrice.

The trial court as well as the High Court had rejected the suit filed by sons of other women for partition of suit property.

Having gone through the evidence adduced by the appellants, the bench said once the common ancestor has admittedly considered the children born of void and voidable marriage as his legitimate children, then such children would be entitled to the same share as the successors in the property of the common ancestor as that of children born out of a valid marriage.