PRAGDASJI GURU BHAGWANDASJI Vs. ISHWARLALBHAI NARSIBHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is on behalf of the defendant and it arises out of a suit, under S. 92, Civil P. C. commenced by the plaintiffs who were originally nine in number in the Court of the District Judge of Kaira at Nadiad. Out of the nine plaintiffs, only one is surviving, and he is now the sole respondent in this appeal, all the rest having died pending this protracted litigation, which began as early as the year 1928.

(2.) The case of the plaintiffs, in substance, was that one Kuberdas, who was a religious teacher and a body man founded a cult known as Kaivalya or Karunasagar Panth, the principal tenet of which is, that the realization of the Infinities is possible only through the medium of a Guru or spiritual preceptor. Kubardas received money and lands from his followers and disciples and with this fund he built a temple at Sarsa. Kuberdas by will appointed his principal disciple Narayandas to succeed him on the Gudi and Narayandas built another and a bigger temple wherein he installed an image of Kuberdas, with the images of two staff bearers on two sides. The Mahants after Narayandas were Baldevdas, Bhagwandas and Prasadji, who is the defendant in the suit and such one of them was appointed by a will executed by his predecessor. The defendant, it is alleged, had been acting in a manner contrary to the usages of the institution and was guilty of incontinence, mismanagement and improper alienation of trust properties. On these allegations the plaintiffs prayed that:

(3.) The defendant in his written statement traversed all the material allegations in the plaint and contended inter alia that the suit was not maintainable inasmuch as no public trust of a religious and charitable character existed in respect to the suits properties which were the private properties of the defendant himself.