COCHIN DEVASWOM BOARD Vs. VASUPURAM DEVASWOM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There was an O. P. in this court in connection with the affairs of the plaintiff Devaswom in which the Cochin" Devaswom Board was made one the respondents. The O. P. ended in a compromise between the parties and was therefore dismissed without costs. The Devaswom Board having incurred expenses in connection with their appearance through counsel in the O. P. realised the same from the Devaswom under threat of coercive process. The suit out of which this appeal arose was for recovery of the amount thus collected by the Board from the plaintiff Devaswom. The court below thought that costs having been not ordered to the Board by the order in the O. P. the Board was not entitled to collect the same from the Devaswom and therefore decreed the suit. This appeal is by the Board against that decree.

(2.) The order as to costs in a judicial proceeding relates only to the mutual liability of the parties arrayed on either side in the proceedings. The O. P. was in regard to a suspension of the Urallers from office ordered by the Cochin Devaswom Board under their statutory powers under Act XV of 1959. It must then be that the Devaswom Board by virtue of the statutory powers was acting for the Devaswom when it suspended the Urallers from office and started an enquiry into their alleged mis-deeds. The Devaswom eo nomine was no party to the O. P. and therefore the order as to costs in the O. P. cannot concern the Devaswom. There could not be any adjudication in the O. P. of the liability for the expenses of the Board in connection with that O. P, as between the Devaswom and the Devaswom Board. The order disallowing costs made in the O. P. was therefore irrelevant to the present case.

(3.) S.111 of Act XV of 1950 provides: