VENKATESH Vs. C GANGAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS review petition under the provisions of section 41 sub-section (1) of Code Civil Procedure is preferred by the appellant-petitioners for review of the judgment passed by us in RFA nos. 539/96 and 540/96 on 17-3-2006 whereby the common judgment and decrees passed in the Original Suits No. 45/1988 and 409/1988 passed by the I Additional Civil Judge, Bangalore Rural District, Bangalore were set aside and modified by us for the reasons assigned in the judgment and a direction was issued by framing of a scheme and settling the dispute between the parties.

(2.) THE circumstances in which this review petition is filed are: the review petitioners-appellants had questioned the judgment and decree of the Trial Court in O. S. No. 45/1988 dated 26-7-1996. By the said judgment, the Trial Court had declined to declare the temple namely 'shanimahatma Temple' as private temple and declared it as a public temple. The appellants claimed that their late father Gangahanumaiah while working on his lands was enlightened on the divine appearance of lord Shanimahatma. Lord Shanimahatma blessed him in person and ordained him to lift the huge rock and shift it on the portion of another agricultural land and conduct poojas. Gangahanumaiah followed the revelations and lifted the rock easily which was otherwise humanly impossible and as ordained, installed it on a portion of land and conducted poojas and other rituals. He revealed of divine appearance of Lord shanimahatma in the first instance to his family members and then to the local residents. Persons who had faith, followed him and commenced performing of poojas with reverence. As time passed, it became a popular place of workship and people from far and near with implicit faith regularised the worship. It led to establishment of a regular temple in the name of Lord Shanimahatma and a deity was also carved out and installed. As the time passed, the offerings of the devotees resulted in collection of large sums of money and necessitated effective management.

(3.) GANGAHANUMAIAH the first devotee though a non-brahmin, continued to conduct the worship to fulfil the aspirations of all concerned. In about an year - the Government accepted the request of gangahanumaiah and granted land in the name of temple. In this way, the temple came to acquire land measuring an extent of 1 acre 8 3/4 guntas.