KRISHNAJI TAMMAJI KOTABAGI Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Court must at the outset observe that the larger controversy is about who make the Committee which can oversee management of Sri Vitthal Devasthan [the Temple], at Kittur, Belagavi. This larger question may have to be considered in Misc.No.242/2023 on the file of the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Belagavi (These miscellaneous proceedings are under Sec. 3 and 7 of the Charitable and Religious Trust Act, 1920) and in WP No.100053/2024, a petition filed by the sixth to tenth respondents for directions to the State and its office to take control of the temple until the disposal of the aforesaid miscellaneous application.

(2.) This writ petition is pending from the month of January 2024, and for the annul Jatra Mahotsava that is held in the month of January 2024, the writ Court by its order dtd. 9/1/2024 has made certain arrangements with discretion to the jurisdictional Tahsildar to choose the persons to assist him in the conduct of this event. However, with some of the respondents in the writ petition invoking the intra-Court appellate jurisdiction in WA No.100029/2024, a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court has clarified that the jurisdictional Tahsildar will conduct the Jatra Mahotsava , but can take the assistance of "trustees of the first appellant-Trust except appellant No.2, i.e Sri Vitthal Gopalrao Pagad" (These appellants are the second and third respondents in the present appeal).

(3.) The traditional Jatra Mahotsava will have to be held even during the current year, and it is scheduled to be held between 12th and 14th of February, 2025. When the petition in WP No.100053/2024 is listed on 29/1/2025, the writ Court has observed that the directions by the Co-ordinate Bench in W.A. No.100029/2024 shall be applicable for the present Jatra Mahatova as well. The appellant, who is one of the members of the Committee about whose constitution there is a dispute, is aggrieved by this order.