SAHEBGOUDA Vs. OGEPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals by special leave have been preferred by the appellants against the judgment and decree dated July 24, 1992 of the High Court of Karnataka by which the Second Appeals preferred by the respondents were allowed and the suit filed by the appellants was dismissed on the ground that the same was barred by Section 80 of Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred as 'the Act').

(2.) The question in issue relates to the jurisdiction of the Civil Court to entertain the suit, which was instituted by the appellants in the Court of Principal Munsiff, Bijapur. The case of the appellants in brief was that they are the ancestral Pujaris of the Amogsidda Temple situated in Survey No. 214, particularly Survey No. 214-B of Jalgeri, Taluka Bijapur, and prior to them their father and grand-father performed Puja by turns. The appellant No. 1 has eight annas right of Puja and other appellants have the remaining right of Puja which right the appellants and their ancestors had been exercising by turns. The appellants performed Puja throughout the year and at the time of annual Jatra of Chhatti Amavasya get the offerings made by Bhaktas to the God Amogsidda in the aforesaid temple and this has been going on for a long time probably from the time of Amogsidda's death and construction of Samadhi about six hundred years back. The Samadhi is the God of Amogsidda in the suit temple and the appellants have been performing Puja and getting the benefit of offerings and serving them as ancestral wahiwatdar Pujaris of the temple being descendants of Amogsidda. The respondents come from Arkeri village and claimed to be related to Amogsidda being Kurbars and disputed the right of the appellants and their ancestos. The respondents and some others filed a suit for injunction against the ancestors of appellants being OS No. 88 of 1944 but the same was dismissed. Thereafter they again started obstructing the appellants in performance of Puja in the temple in 1967 and therefore the present appellant No. 4 and father of appellant No. 3 had filed OS No. 347 of 1967 for injunction for restraining the respondents from causing any obstruction in the performance of Puja but the suit was dismissed for want of prosecution. The appellants have been continuously exercising their right of Puja till now without any objection and the annual Jatra taking place in the area around the temple is managed by a Panchayat led by Siddalingappa Karbasappa Siralshetty and the Pujari. It was further pleaded that the appellants and Bhaktas had taken steps to get the temple and the land annexed to it registered as Public trust with the Assistant Charity Commissioner at Belgaum and in that connection Inquiry No. 321 of 1980 had been instituted in his office. The reliefs claimed in the suit are as under :

(3.) The respondent No. 1 filed written statement denying the allegations made in the plaint and pleaded that as the suit instituted by the appellants in the year 1967 had been dismissed in default, the present suit was barred by order IX, Rule 9, C.P.C. The respondent No. 4 filed written statement contesting the suit on the grounds, inter alia, that the appellants did not have any right whatsoever to perform the Puja as Pujaris in the temple and that the Amogsidda temple is situate in Mammatti Gudda in RS No. 214/B of Jalageri village : that neither the appellants nor their ancestors ever performed Puja in Amogasidda Temple nor have they received any offerings made by the Bhaktas and that the allegations made in the plaint that the respondents had put any obstructions and started picking up quarrels was false.