NANDURI YOGANANDA LAKSHMINARASIMHACHARI Vs. AGASTHE SWARASWAMIVARU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the judgment and decree of the High Court of Madras varying the decree of the trial court. The appellants were the defendants in the trial court and the respondent was the plaintiff who was represented by the sole trustee appointed by the Hindu Religious Endowment Board.

(2.) The suit was brought by the deity through the sole trustee for recovery of Rs. 3,480 towards the arrears of income of the property in trust for the years 1942-44 and for a direction for future payment at the rate of 160 bags of paddy per year or its equivalent i.e. Rs. 1,680. The plaintiff alleged that the property in dispute constituted a specific endowments for Kalyanotsayam of the deity and that the defendants who were trustees had committed default in carrying out the purpose of the trust. The prayer was for a decree for the recovery of expenses of Kalyanotsayam and of the feeding charges. The defence raised was that the inam was a personal grant for driving the car of the deity on the festival days and that it was not a specific trust or an endowment for the benefit of the idol. In other words it was a grant of the inam burdened with service to the god. There were other pleas raised in regard to jurisdiction, res judicata and adverse possession. The trial court held that the grant was a specific endowment for the Kalyanotsavam of the deity but the appellants were not bound to spend the whole income of the lands for the purpose. It decreed a sum of Rs. 200 per year as adequate provision for the performance of the service of Kalyanotsavam. The other pleas raised were decided against the appellants.

(3.) In the High Court the only point argued was regarding the nature of the grand trustee could not call upon a specific trustee to pay any money except on the ground of expending that amount and there was in proof of this expenditure the prayer as contained in the plaint was not granted and the High Court was also of the opinion that as all the facts had been pleaded and there were no new facts to be alleged and the parties were alive to the real nature of the dispute and had even the issues framed on that every question it allowed the plaint to be amended by the addition of the prayer for a declaration that the properties in the schedule and the income thereof formed a specific endowment for the due performance of the services of Kalyanotsavam of the deity and feeding charges and other expenses incidental thereto and the appellants were therefore liable to pay the entire income. It was also of the opinion that all the available evidence had been adduced by both the parties and that the prayer for declaration was only a formal relief which flowed from the allegations in the plaint. It neither involved a charge of the cause of action nor did it require a fresh trial and therefore the petition for amendment was allowed by the addition of the prayer stated above.