BHOGAMJU VENKATA JANAKI RAMA RAO PEDDINTI VENKATA SESHACHAYULU Vs. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR HINDU RELIGIOUS ENDOWMENTS ANDHRA PRADESH HYDERABAD BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR HINDU RELIGIOUS ENDOWMENTS MADRAS NOW ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals arise out of a single judgment of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and are filed by two distinct parties who felt aggrieved by it, pursuant to the grant of certificates of fitness granted by the High Court under Art. 133 (1) of the Constitution.

(2.) In Dwarka Tirumalai- a village in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, there is a temple dedicated to Sri Venkateswaraswami. The administration of the affairs of this temple was being conducted under a scheme settled on the 29th August, 1930 by the Subordinate Judge of Eluru in Original Suit No. 1 of 1925 on his file. That was a suit filed by certain worshippers of the temple wider S. 92 of the Civil Procedure Code for the settling of a scheme for the proper management and administration of the institution. The hereditary trustees of the temple as well as the office holders thereof, and in particular the archakas and the Karnam were party defendants to that litigation. There had, even then, been controversy as rewards the rights of the two office holders whom we have named and as regards the items of remuneration to which they were entitled and these were considered and findings recorded by the Court and the provision of the scheme framed embodied the findings on these points. From the decision of the learned Subordinate Judge appeals were filed to the High Court both by the worshipper plaintiffs as well as by the Dharamkartas who were members of the family of the Zamindar of Malavaran which was the hereditary trustee of the temple -- but both the appeals were dismissed and the scheme, as framed by the trial Judge, was confirmed.

(3.) During the pendency of this suit in the Court of the Subordinate Judge, the Madras Legislature enacted the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act (Madras Act II of 1927) which we will hereafter refer to, as the Act. It was an enactment to provide, as its preamble recited, for "the better administration and governance" of certain Hindu Religious Endowments. The temple of Venkateswaraswami was an institution to which the Act applied and according to the nomenclature adopted by the Act the temple in question was an "excepted temple" - an expression which was defined as meaning "a temple, the right of succession to the office of trustee whereof......... has been hereditary". As already stated, the family of the Zamindars of Mylavaram were the hereditary trustees of this temple.