STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. VILAMPATTI NADAR URAVINMURAIKKU PATHIAYAPATTA A V M MARIMUTHU NADAR MELNILAIPALLIYIN MANAGING COMMITTEE VILAMPATTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The defendants in O.S. No.242 of 1981 on the file of the District Munsif of Sathur are the appellants in the second appeal. The plaintiffs in the said suit are the respondents in the second appeal. For the sake of convenience the parties in this second appeal are referred to by their nomenclature given in the suit.

(2.) The first plaintiff is the managing committee of A.V.M. Marimuthu Nadar Higher Secondary School belonging to Vilampatti Nadar Uravinmurai and it is a registered society registered under the Societies Registration Act represented by its Secretary. The second plaintiff is the president and the third plaintiff is the member of the School managing committee. The fourth plaintiff is the president of Vilampatti Nadar Uravinmurai. The fifth plaintiff is the Secretary of the said committee. The plaintiffs filed the suit (a) for declaration that the Vilampatti Nadar Uravinmurai Higher Secondary School and the primary school named as A.V.M. Marimuthu Nadar Higher Secondary School and Nadar George Primary School managed by the first plaintiff-committee is a denominational institution entitled to protection under Articles 26 and 30 of the Constitution of India; (b) for an injunction restraining the defendants and their officers from in any way interfering with the management and administration of the above two educational institutions and the property belonging to the institutions including the stoppage of the grants in pursuance of the Act 29 of 1974 by enforcing sections 8, 11 to 18, 21 to 26, 31 to 33, 39, 41 to 47 and 56 and rules 5, 7, 9, 10 to 14, 15 to 18 and 21 to 24 of the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 1973 and the rules framed thereunder; and (c) for further declaration that the Vilampatti Nadar Uravinmurai, the fourth plaintiff in the suit, is a religious denomination entitled to run and manage institutions of its own accord under the rights conferred under Articles 26 and 30 of the Constitution of India. The case of the plaintiffs is as follows :

(3.) The defendants resisted the suit contending as follows : The first plaintiff committee is not a denominational institution entitled to protection under Articles 26 and 30 of the Constitution of India. The plaintiffs do not represent the so-called religious denomination and as such the suit cannot be construed as a suit by a religious denomination. At best, the suit is filed by a committee registered under the Societies Registration Act and its office bearers. Hence the suit as framed is not maintainable. The plaintiffs form part of Hindu general public and by no stretch of imagination they can be described as religious denomination. They form a separate caste in the Hindu Society and in religion, customs, manners and in all respects they are only Hindus and belong to the Hindu Society. The suit institution is not a religious or charitable institution. By reserving separate and exclusive temples, burial grounds etc., the Hindu Nadars of Vilampatti cannot be defined as a religious denomination. The suit institution even assuming that the plaintiffs are religious denomination is neither a religious nor a charitable trust. No religious activity is carried on by them and it is not established and maintained to propogate religion. It is, an educational institution, pure and simple imparting secular education and cannot be characterised as institution for religious and charitable purposes within the meaning of Article 26 of the Constitution. The schools mentioned in the plaints are neither religious institutions nor minority institutions and as such the plaintiffs cannot invoke Articles 26 and 30 of the Constitution.