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(iv)The principle. of relation back applies only when the claim made by the adopted son relates to the estate of his adoptive father. The estate may be definite and ascertained, as when he is the sole and absolute owner of the properties, or (1) (1955) 1 S.C.R. 1.

it may be fluctuating as when he is a member of a joint Hindu family in which the interest of the coparceners is liable to increase by death or decrease by birth. In either case, it is the interest of the adoptive father which the adopted son is declared entitle to take as on the date of his death. This principle of relation back cannot be applied when claim made by adopted son relates not to the estate of his adoptive father but to that of a collateral. With reference to the claim with respect to the estate of a collateral, the governing principle is that inheritance can never be in abeyance, and that once it devolves on a person who is the nearest heir under the law, it is thereafter not liable to be divested. When succession to the properties of a person other then an adoptive father is involved, the principle applicable is not the rule of relation back but the rule that inheritance once vested could not be divested.

The case of in adopted son's claiming to divest the heir of a collateral, who died before the, adoption took place of the property inherited from the collateral, is different from the case of his claiming the property which originally belonged to the adoptive father but had devolved on a collateral and, after the death of the collateral. which took place before the adoption devolved on a hee of thir collateral. In the former case, the claim is to the property of the collateral, while in the latter case it is to the property of the adoptive father, which, by force of circumstances, had passed through the hands of a collateral. We may now consider the Full Bench Case of the Bombay High Court, Ramchandra Hammant Kulkarni v. Balaji Datto Kulkarni, (4) which overruled the judgment in the instant case. The question formulated for the decision of the Full Bench was "If on the death of a sole surviving copar- cener his property has devolved upon his heir by inheritance and on his death it has vested in his own heir, would the subsequent adoption in the family of the sole surviving coparcener divest it from such heir?".

The facts having a bearing on the decision of the question were as follows : Ramchandra and Balaji were brothers. Ramchandra died on October 10, 1903, and his widow Tarabai died two days later. Their son Hammant had died during Ramchandra's lifetime, leaving behind him his widow Sitabai. The Watan property of Ramchandra devolved on Balaji after the death of Tarabai. On Balaji's death, it devolved on Datto his son who died in 1916. On his death, the property devolved upon his son Balaji. Sitabai, widow of Hanmant, adopted Ramchandra, the plaintiff, on. January 21, 1945. Ramchandra thereafter instituted the suit against Balaji, son of Datto, and claimed that property which originally belonged to his a adoptive family on the ground that he was entitled to recover it by virtue of his adoption which related (4) I.L.R 1955 Bom. 837.

back to the date of the death of his adoptive father. Chagla, C. J., delivering the judgment of the Court in the above case said, in answer to the question formulated, that the subsequent adoption in the family the sole surviving coparcener would not divest the property, assuming that Ramchandra, the adoptive grandfather. was the sole surviving coparcener of his own branch and that on his death the property devolved upon Datto and then upon Balaji. The learned Chief Justice, in considering the question on principle, said at page 851 :