JAGANNATH RAMANUJ DAS Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two connected matters are taken up together for the sake of convenience and may be disposed of by one and the same judgment. Petition No. 405 of 1953 has been presented to this court under Article 32 of the Constitution and the petitioners are the Mahants or superiors of two ancient and well-known religious institutions of Orissa, both of which have endowments of considerable value situated within and outside the Orissa State. An Act, known as the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, was passed by the Orissa legislative Assembly functioning under the Government of India Act, 1935, in the year 1939 and it received the assent of the Governor-General on 31-8-1939. The object of the Act; as stated in the preamble, is "to provide for the better administration and governance of certain Hindu religious endowments" and the expression "religious endowment" has been defined comprehensively in the Act as meaning all property belonging to, or given or endowed for the support of Maths or temples or for the performance of any service or charity connected therewith. The whole scheme of the Act is to vest the control and supervision of public temples and Maths in a statutory authority designated as the Commissioner of Hindu Religious Endowments and confer upon him certain powers with a view to enable him to exercise effective control over the trustees of the Maths and the temples. The Commissioner is required to be a member of the Judicial or Executive Service of the Province and his actions are subject to the general control of the Provincial Government. For the purpose of meeting the expenses of the Commissioner and his staff, every Math or temple, the annual income of which exceeds Rs. 250/- is required under S. 49 of the Act to pay an annual contribution at certain percentage of the annual income which increases progressively with the increase in the income. With this contribution as well as loans and grants made by the Government , a special fund is to be constituted as provided by S. 50 and the expenses of administering the religious endowments are to be met out of this fund.

(2.) In July 1940 a suit, out of which the Case No. 1 of 1950 arises, was instituted in the court of the District Judge of Cuttack a number of Mahants including the two petitioners in the petition under Art. 32 before us, praying for a declaration that the Orissa Religious Endowments Act of 1939 was 'ultra vires' the Orissa Legislature and for other consequential reliefs. The validity of the Act was challenged substantially on three grounds, namely, (i) that the subject matter of legislation was not covered by Entry 34 of List II in Schedule VII of the Government of India Act, 1935; (ii) that the contribution levied under S. 49 was, in substance, a tax and could not have been imposed by the Provincial Legislature; and (iii) that as the provisions of the Act affected the income of properties situated outside the territorial limits of the Province, the Act was extra-territorial in its operation and hence inoperative. All these contentions were over ruled by the District Judge of Cuttack, who by his judgment dated 11-9-1945 dismissed the palintiffs' suit. Against that decision, an appeal was taken by the plaintiffs to the High Court of Orissa and the appeal was heard by a Division Bench, consisting of Jagannadhadas and Narasimham, JJ. The learned Judges by two separate but concurring judgments dated 13-9-1949 affirmed the decision of the Distrist Judge and dismissed the appeal. It is against this judgment that Case no. 1 of 1950 has come to this court.

(3.) During the pendency of the appeal in this court, the Constitution came into force on 26-1-1950 with its chapter on fundamental rights, and the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act also has been amended recently by the State Legislature of Orissa by Amending Act 2 of 1952. In view of these changes, the present application under Art. 32 of the Constitution has been filed by two of the Mahants who figured as plaintiffs in the Declaratory Suit of 1940 and the application has been framed comprehensively so as to include all points that could be urged against the validity of the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act on the basis of the provisions of the Constitution. It is conceded by both the parties that in these circumstances it is not necessary for us to deal separately with the appeal. The decision, which we would arrive at in the petition under Art. 32, will be our pronouncement on the validity or otherwise of the different provisions of the impugned Act.