D SRINIVASAN Vs. COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal preferred against the judgment dated 15-11-88 of the High Court of Madras in LPA No. 4/1983. The appellants in the LPA before the High Court were Sri. Y. R. Natarajan and Sri D. Srinivasan. The 1st respondent in the LPA was the Commissioner, Hindu Religious Endowments, Madras, the 2nd respondent, one E. Venkatasubbaiah and the 3rd respondent D. Adiseshayya. The 2nd and 3rd respondents were shown in the LPA as persons who died, and no legal representatives were brought on record. It also appears that the 2nd appellant D. Srinivasan was brought on record during the pendency of the first appeal before the learned Single Judge, in C.M.P. No. 4112/1978 on 20-7-1979. The first appeal A.S. No. 379/78 was filed by the Commissioner of Endowments, who was the defendant in the suit, against E. Venkatasubbaih and D. Adiseshayya and Y. R. Natarajan. Learned single Judge allowed the appeal of the Commissioner and the respondents in the 1st appeal filed the LPA as mentioned above and the same was dismissed as stated earlier. It is against the abovesaid judgment in the L.P.A. that this appeal has been preferred.

(2.) The following facts are necessary to be stated for disposal of this appeal. One P. Venkata Varada Doss founded Sri Kothandaramaswami temple in question in the year 1891. He executed a Will on 9-7-1915 under which he gave absolute power to his brother-in-law D. Venkatarangaiah in respect of the properties dedicated to the temple and also directed the latter to administer the temple. It appears that the Inspector of Endowments in his report dated 5-3-1934 brought to the notice of the Endowments Board, Madras matters relating to the affairs of this temple, whereupon the Trustees were directed by the Board to produce accounts by way of reply. The then Administering Trustee, Sri D. Venkatarangaiah, who was the brother-in-law of the Original founder, stated before the Board that no accounts were being maintained, as the properties were "private" properties. Thereafter, an enquiry under Section 84 of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1926 (Act 1/1927) (hereinafter called the 1927 Act) was initiated, to decide the nature of the temple. During the hearing of the matter, the Trustee gave up the contention that the temple was a private temple, but contended that the temple was an 'Excepted Temple', as defined in sub-Clause (5) of Section 9 of the 1927 Act. The said contention was accepted by the learned Commissioner of Endowments in his order on 4-10-1935, stating that the institution was founded by Hari Doss's family and that the then Trustee, D. Venkatarangiah, who was the brother-in-law of the founder, had absolute rights to administer the temple and that it was clear that this was a case of succession being specially provided for by the founder of an institution under sub-Clause (5) of Section 9 of the 1927 Act. On that ground, it was held that the temple was an 'Excepted Temple'. The relevant portion of the order reads as follows:

(3.) We have noted that the original founder had nominated Venkatarangaiah to be his successor. But the founder did not specify in his Will as to what was to happen after Venkatarangaiah.