MAHANT MOTI DAS MAHANT SHIA RAM DAS MAHANT NARAIN DAS MAHANT MAHABIR DAS MAHANT RAM KRISHNA DAS Vs. S P SAHI THE STATE OF BIHAR THE PRESIDENT BIHAR STATE BOARD OF RELIGIOUS TRUSTS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a batch of five appeals which have been heard together and the principal question for decision in these appeals is the constitutional validity of the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950 (Bihar I of 1951), hereinafter referred to as the Act. Four of these appeals arise out of writ proceedings then in the High Court of Patna on petition made under Arts. 226 and 227 of the Constitution. One of them, namely, Civil Appeal No. 228 of 1955, arises out of a suit which was originally, instituted in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Patna but was later transferred to the High Court by an order made by it under Art. 228 of the Constitution. The petitioners in the writ petitions and the plaintiffs in the suit challenged the constitutional validity of the Act on certain grounds to which we shall presently refer. The petitions and the suit were contested by the State of Bihar and/or the President, Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts; who are now respondents before us.

(2.) The High Court in three separate judgments, two dated 5-10-1953, and the third dated 8-10-1953, held that the Act was a valid piece of legislation and on that main finding dismissed the writ petitions and the suit. The petitioners and the plaintiffs, appellants before us, applied for and obtained certificates from the High Court under Art. 132 of the Constitution to the effect that the cases involved substantial questions of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution and the appeals have been brought to this Court in pursuance of those certificates.

(3.) The facts lie within a very narrow compass. In Civil Appeal No. 225 of 1955 the appellant is Mahant Moti Das, and he alleged that he was the Mahant of a math or asthal situate in village Parbatta, District Monghyr, in Bihat that he was a follower of the religion founded by Sri Kabir Sahib, that the properties of the asthal were treated as private properties of the mahants and that the President of the Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts constituted under the Act had no authority to serve him with a notice under S. 59 of the Act, inasmuch as the Act was 'ultra vires' and unconstitutional and, in any event, did not apply to his math or asthal. In Civil Appeal No. 226 of 1955 the appellant Mahant Ram Das similarly alleged that he was the Mahant of a math or asthal situate in village Bhuthari in the same district of Monghyr, that he was a "bairagi sadhu" and follower of Ramanandi Laskari Sri Vaishuava Sampradaya, that he was the absolute owner of the properties belonging to the math and that the President, Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts, had no authority to issue a notice to him asking him to furnish statements and accounts of the properties in his possession. In Civil Appeal No. 228 of 1955 the appellants made similar allegations in their plaint and challenged the "vires" of the Act mentioning as their cause of action the date on which the assent of the President of India in the Act was first published in the Bihar Gazette. In Civil Appeal No. 229 of 1955 the appellant Mahant Mahabir Das stated that he was the Mahant of an asthal known as Bisanpur Asthal situate in the self-same district. He also received a notice from the President, Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts, to furnish statements and accounts, and he challenged the vires in the Act on similar grounds. In Civil Appeal No. 248 of 1955 Mahant Ram Krishna Das alleged that the temple in question, known as Bhikam Das Thakurbari in the town of Patna, was constructed by one Benidasji with his own money and he installed certain deities therein. The allegation was that the temple and the properties thereof did not constitute a 'religious trust' within the meaning of that expression in the Act and further that the Act was 'ultra vires' the Constitution inasmuch as it infringed some of his fundamental rights. The defence in all these cases was that the Act was valid, and applied to the asthals or temple in question and the properties thereof.