Page:The Aristocracy of Southern India.djvu/233

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S. R. V. Rangiah Appa Rao Bahadur.
187

Narasimha Appa Rao, presented a petition to Government, praying that the Zemindari might be divided, which petition was rejected. He then commenced a suit against his five brothers to recover a share of the estate and also the personal property left by his father. The case was decided by the District Judge of Krishna, and an appeal was preferred to the High Court of Madras against the decision of the Lower Court, and ultimately the Privy Council decided that the Nuzvid estates became a new Zemindari not feudal in its tenure or impartible in its nature, and therefore the succession to them must be regulated by the ordinary Hindu Law.

In consequence of the said decision the five surviving sons of Raja Sobhanadri became entitled to one-sixth of the estates with arrears of mesne profits, which arrears the minor sons of their eldest brother could not possibly pay out of their sixth share. The District Judge, in 1880, issued an injunction to the Collector to divide the estate and the Collector anxious to avert the ruin of the three minors, endeavoured to persuade the successful litigant to agree to some compromise. The uncle of the minors would listen to no argument. To arrange a division among claimants of this nature was a troublesome business, but in 1881 it was accomplished by the Collector who effected a compromise under which the minors retained one-sixth of the estates and a sum of money in hand. The remainder of the estates and of the money at credit of the minors was divided among the five uncles in accordance with the decision of the Privy Council.

Sri Raja Venkatadri Apparow Bahadur Garu went to Hyderabad with his elder brother Sri Raja Jagannadha Appa Row Bahadur to recover the estate of