KIDANGAZHI MANAKKAL NARAYANAN NAMBUDIRIPAD AND ORS. Vs. STATE OF MADRAS, REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY, FIRKA DEVELOPMENT AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are applications filed under Article 226 of the Constitution and they raise the question as to the validity of the Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act XIX of 1951 hereinafter referred to as the Act. The petitioners in W. P. No. 71 of 1952 are the hereditary Uralans or trustees of the Karikkat temple in Malabar. On 2 -2 -1945 the Board of Hindu Religious Endowments framed a scheme for the management of the temple under Section 62 of Madras Act II of 1927 and the same was modified by the District Court, South Malabar by its decree dated 6 -1 -1950 passed in O. S. No. 5 of 1945. The scheme provides 'inter alia' that there should be a paid manager for the temple to be appointed by the Board from among three persons whose names are to be sent up by the trustees. Troubles arose when the Board rejected all the three names recommended by them. The Uralans felt that the action of the Board was an unwarranted interference with their rights as hereditary trustees. On 26 -9 -1951 there was a meeting of the Uralans in which one of them Sastrasaram Bahattadripad was elected as the managing trustee and the petitioners were constituted a managing committee.

(2.) COUNSEL for petitioners have urged two contentions in support of these petitions: (1) The impugned Act is void as it vests the administration of religious endowments in what is a department of the State. (2) The provisions of the scheme framed under the Act deprive hereditary trustees of the substance of their rights as such trustees and that they are repugnant to Article 19(1)(i) of the Constitution and therefore, void.

(3.) IT will be seen that in American jurisprudence the meaning of the words "establishment of religion" has not been the same at all times and with all persons. Grammatically, "establishment" might mean either the act of establishing, in which case the meaning of the First Amendment will be that the State should not establish by law any religion; or it might mean the institution which has been established in which case the prohibition under the Amendment will extend to any legislation in respect of a religious institution. It was pointed out by Reed J. in '(1947) 92 Law Ed 649 (H)' in the passage , already quoted that it was in the first arid restricted sense that the words were understood by their framers, Mr. Madison and Mr. Jefferson.