SRIMAD SUDHINDRA THIRTHA SWAMIJI Vs. RAGHAVENDRA THIRTHA SWAMI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An elusive 'Swamiji' literally makes the decree-holder run from pillar to post. He remains invisible to the Amin and the State Police. The entire machinery of the State is at crossroads. The dispute between two pontiffs of Shri. Kashi Math Samsthan to wrest its control and administration could not be amicably settled despite intervention by devotees. This lead to filing of a suit numbered as OS No. 34/2000 on the file of the Court of the IV Additional District Judge, Tirupati wherein the junior pontiff was camping. The junior pontiff was the second plaintiff and the senior pontiff was the first defendant of the first plaintiff Samsthan in the suit wherein a counterclaim was laid. The suit for declaration that the second plaintiff is the Madathipathi of the first plaintiff Samsthan and for consequential injunction was dismissed. The counter-claim was decreed restraining the second plaintiff by an injunction from interfering with the administration of the Samsthan by the first defendant. The second plaintiff was further directed therein to hand over all the deities and other articles belonging to the Samsthan to the first defendant. The deities and articles were specified by amending the decree by order in IA No. 168/2010 on the basis of an inventory report of the Advocate Commissioner. It is this amended decree in the counter-claim in OS No. 34/2000 that is put into execution by the first defendant to which one objection after another is being raised.

(2.) EP No. 18/2009 was first filed on the file of the Court of the IV Additional District Judge, Tirupati whereupon the second plaintiff contended that he has shifted his camp to Ernakulam. The decree was therefore transmitted to the Court of the District Judge, Ernakulam and later made over to the Court of the I Additional District Judge, Ernakulam. EP No. 167/2011 was accordingly filed in the transferee Court to get back the deities and other articles comprising of gold jewellery studded with diamonds, emeralds, blue sapphire etc. The objection as regards the jurisdiction of the transferee Court was turned down in Srimad Raghavendra Thirtha Swamy v. Srimad Sudhindra Thirtha Swamiji, 2011 4 KerLT 265. The objection as regards the executability of the decree was turned down in Srimad Raghavendra Thirtha Swamy v. Srimad Sudhindra Thirtha Swamiji,2012 2 KerLT 444. The grant of police aid to execute the decree in EP No. 167/2011 is concluded by Srimad Sudhindra Thirtha Swamiji v. Raghavendra Thirtha Swamiji, 2013 2 KerLT 203. The operative part of the judgment is extracted hereunder:

(3.) It has inter alia been stated in the penultimate paragraph of the judgment afore-quoted in disposal of OP (C) No. 256/2013 as follows: