SRI MEENAKSHI SUNDARESWARAR, ETC., DEVASTHANAMS BY EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND ANR. Vs. C.M.S. SHANMUGASUNDARA BHATTAR AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN each of these cases the village which was admittedly an inam estate, was taken over by the Government under the provisions of the Abolition Act (Madras Act XXVI of 1948). An advance compensation for each such estate was deposited with the Tribunal. It was common ground that in each case the grant of the inam was to provide for the performance of specified services in the Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, Madurai, in one set of cases, and in the Kallalagar temple, in the other set of cases. The concerned Devasthanam claimed in each case that the entire amount of the advance compensation should be paid to it. The service -holders, who are the respondents before us on the other hand claimed that the amounts were payable to them as they alone were the principal landholders of the respective estates within the meaning of Section 2(12) of Act (XXVI of 1948). That the service -holders were in exclusive possession of their respective estates till they vested in the Government on the notified dates under Section 3 of the Act was not in dispute. The Tribunal by a majority upheld the claim of the service -holders and dismissed the claims preferred by the Devasthanam under Section 42 of the Act. Against these dismissals the Devasthanams appealed. Though in the case of each of those estates the claims preferred by the service holders, also under Section 42 of the Act were disposed of along with the applications preferred by the Devasthanams, no separate appeals were preferred against the orders in the corresponding Original Petitions filed by the service -holders, which the Tribunal allowed.

(2.) WE set out below some of the details with reference to each of these appeals.

(3.) ADMITTEDLY each of the villages had been granted in inam, and that grant was subsequently confirmed by the British. The determination of the questions, who was the grantee of the inam, and what were the terms of the grant, has to furnish the basis for the decision of the question, who held the estate immediately before it vested in the Government. The original deeds of grants themselves were not available. But extracts from the Inam Fair Register were filed, and in some cases, where they are available, title deeds issued by the Inam Commissioner were also filed.