B GURUSIDDAPPA SETTY Vs. VEERASHAIVA SAMAJ CHIKMAGALUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) One Gurusiddappa Setty, a Coffee Planter of Chikmagalur district, filed this writ petition, inter alia, seeking the quashing of Annexure-C, an order passed by the Commissioner for Religious and Charitable Endowments in Karnataka. That is an order made in appeal filed by the Veerashaiva Samaj and two other residents of Chikmagalur town. Gurusiddappa Setty was one of the respondents in appeal. The said Gurusiddappa Setty had presented an application to the Assistant Commissioner, Chikmagalur Sub- division, under Sections 14,17,18 and 19 of the Mysore Religious and Charitable Institutions Act, 1927 alleging mismanagement of the properties of the temple. The Assistant Commissioner, after enquiry, dismissed the application. An appeal was filed before the Deputy Commissioner, Chikmagalur district. The Deputy Commissioner, allowed the appeal and recommended to the Government to take over the Samaj by the Government. Government, on the recommendation, accorded sanction to take over the Samaj. That led to a writ petition being filed in this Court which came to be allowed and the Government Order was quashed. But this Court directed the Commissioner of Endowments to hear the appeal pending before him and dispose of the appeal on merits. That is how the impugned order has been passed by the Commissioner for Endowments. Whatever the reasons which persuaded the Commissioner to allow the appeal and set aside the order of the Deputy Commissioner, the present writ petition was preferred in the interest of Veerashaiva community in Chikmagalur. The petition complained of mismanagement by certain members. If the petitioner in this petition died after this Court directed issuance of emergent notice regarding rule, the cause of action which the petitioner had must be deemed to have died with him. The argument that the wife and children also are of the opinion that the affairs of the Veerashaiva Samaj in question have been mismanaged and therefore they must be permitted to come on record and continue the writ petition, to my mind, does not appeal. What was done under Section 14 and other relevant Sections of the Mysore Act was on a complaint made seeking the initiation of action in order to bring the religious institution concerned under proper management. If the complainant died the complaint must also die. All those who have the same views as the deceased complainant, may also commence similar proceedings in the same manner before the Assistant Commissioner. It is open to the Assistant Commissioner to conduct a fresh enquiry and dispose of their complaints on merits. There was no personal cause of action which can be said to survive in this writ petition after the death of the petitioner. Such personal cause of action not being heritable, if any, the question of the legal representatives being brought on record to prosecute the petition does not arise.

(2.) However, Shri Keshava Murthy, learned counsel for the petitioner, placed reliance upon a decision of this Court in K.N. LAKSHMINARASIMHIAH v SECRE TARY, MYSORE REVENUE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL & OTHERS (1966) KARNATAKA LAW JOURNAL 199). In the said case a Division Bench of this Court ruled, the expression 'Person aggrieved' in Section 64(l)(f) of the Motor Vehicles Act, means a person who is injured or affected in a legal sense. When such an aggrieved person transfers his permit, the transferee acquires all the rights which the transferor had to participate in proceedings before the various Tribunals in the matter of granting of a permit or opposing the grant of a permit. In other words, a successor in interest to a permit becomes an aggrieved person because the previous holder of the permit was himself an aggrieved person. That is not the case here. The present legal representatives were never joined an joint-applicants before the Assistant Commissioner when the original complaint was filed. Therefore, they cannot be placed in the same position as successors in interest to property rights as in the case of a stage carriage permit in respect of a motor vehicle.

(3.) Similarly, the learned counsel placed reliance upon the decision of the Delhi High Court in R.S. SHRI RAM PERSHAD & OTHERS v SMT. CHHANO DEVI Wd/o RAM SARUP & OTHERS (AIR 1969 DELHI 75). That decision was rendered by a learned single Judge of that Court in a second appeal. A suit had been filed by cotrustees against a fellow trustee calling upon him to render accounts in respect of certain suit trust properties of which the defendant was the sole manager in regard to collection of moneys due to the trust and maintenance of accounts as well as expenditure incurred for the maintenance of the Dharmashala. Even before he filed his written statement in the original suit, the defendant died. Thereafter, plaintiffs brought on record the widow and minor children of the deceased defendant. In the second appeal one of the questions argued was whether they were necessary parties or whether the cause of action of the plaintiffs had ceased to exist with the death of the defendant against whom they had cause of action. The argument for the legal representatives was rejected on the ground, as long as there was a possibility and allegation hi fact had been made that unjust gain made by the deceased formed part of his estate, the estate was liable to account to the co-trustees and therefore they were necessary parties. From that it does not follow that, on the facts of this case, petitioner who was doing no more than ventilating his personal grievance in regard to the mismanagement of the affairs of the Veerashaiva Samaj in Chikmagalur cannot transfer that grievance as a heritable right on the members of his family. As earlier stated, the members of the family independently, are free to take appropriate action to set right the affairs of the Veerashaiva Samaj if they are interested. Therefore, I.A.I is misconceived. It is rejected. Petition is also dismissed as there is no cause of action subsisting in favour of the legal representatives which they can prosecute. Writ Petition dismissed