V. SOLAMALAYAN POOJARI (DECEASED) AND ORS. Vs. THE COMMISSIONER, HINDU RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE ENDOWMENTS AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition, the petitioner attacks the finding of the first, respondent, Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, in Appeal No. 37 of 1962 filed against the order of the Deputy Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Madurai, the second respondent in O.A. No. 5 of 1961 and prays for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the abovesaid order.

(2.) The brief facts necessary for consideration of this writ petition are the following:

(3.) The word 'emolument' has been defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as "profit from office or employment, salary ". It is therefore clear that when Section 63(e) of the Act speaks of a person being entitled by custom or otherwise to an emolument in any religious institution, and he seeks for relief in respect of such an emolument under Section 63(e) before the Deputy Commissioner, and if his right to receive the emolument is disputed because it is urged by the opposite party that he is not the proper person entitled to the office which carries that emolument, it will be within the jurisdiction of the Deputy Commissioner to decide that right as a preliminary step before giving him the relief which he seeks in respect of the emoluments. In other words, when the right to the office and the right to the emoluments are both inter-linked, the Deputy Commissioner, while exercising jurisdiction regarding the right to the emoluments cannot refuse to exercise jurisdiction for deciding the right to the office which is a condition precedent to the applicant being entitled to the emoluments.