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Judgment
In these cases the Court had jurisdiction to entertain and decide the suits when they were instituted, viz., on the 30th June 1897.
Madras Act II of 1894 was extended to the office of village accountant in the Venkatagiri Estate during the pendency of the suits; but this did
not take away the jurisdiction of the Court to decide the suits then pending before it and thus take away the Plaintiff''s right of action in the ordinary
Civil Courts.
It is a general rule that when the Legislature alters the rights of parties by taking away or conferring any right of action, its enactments, unless in
express terms they apply to pending actions, do not affect them. But there is an exception to this rule, namely, where enactments merely affect
procedure, but do not extend to rights of action (per Jessel, M.R., In re Joseph Suche and Co. L.R. 1 Ch.D. 48).
There is nothing in the wording of Section 21, Madras Act III of 1895, to negative the application of this general rule.
The only other point urged by the Appellant is that the adoption of the second Plaintiff by his uncle was invalid, because the natural parents and
the adoptive father of the second Plaintiff were under pollution owing to the birth of the second Plaintiff and the death of the wife of the adoptive
father.
The adoptive father and the second Plaintiff being of the same gotra, the religious ceremony of datta homam was not necessary (Govindayyar v.
Dorasami ILR Mad. 5). That being so, the adoption was not invalid. The second appeals fail, and we dismiss them.