MALABAR DEVASWOM BOARD Vs. VALLIYODAN KRISHNAN NAIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CAN the number of Trustees exceed five in number in a temple at a given point of time under The Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1951 (the 'Act' for short) applicable to the erstwhile Malabar area? I heard Mr.R.Lakshmi Narayan, Advocate on behalf of the Malabar Devaswom Board, Mr.M.Sasindran, Advocate on behalf of the Non-Hereditary Trustees and Mr.A.P.Chandrasekharan, Senior Advocate on behalf of the Hereditary Trustees.

(2.) THERE is a modified Scheme framed by the Deputy Commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable (Administration) Department in respect of the temple in question under Section 58 of the Act. The Scheme empowers the appropriate authority to appoint Non-Hereditary Trustees not exceeding five which is within the permissible limit of five Trustees stipulated under Section 39(2) of the Act. The fact remains that there are only three Hereditary Trustees at present representing the three families to whom the temple belonged and two Trustees can possibly be appointed further.

(3.) THE court below was therefore perfectly justified in setting aside the order of the Commissioner for the Malabar Devaswom Board appointing five Non-Hereditary Trustees in the temple in addition to the three Hereditary Trustees. The power so exercised by the court below to set aside the impugned order on an application filed by a Hereditary Trustee under Section 39 (4) of the Act calls for no interference. The further question as to whether a proper enquiry was conducted under Section 39(2) of the Act or whether the Deputy Commissioner was competent to sign the order need not therefore be considered.