A. KARUPPA CHETTY GOUNDAN Vs. THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR HINDU RELIGIOUS ENDOWMENTS  AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this application the petitioner prays for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the order of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Board, dated the 30th July, 1948, by which the petitioner was removed from the office of the trustee of Sri Bhadrakaliamman temple, Mecheri, Salem District. The order was passed under Section 53 and Section 26 of Madras Act II of 1927 as amended by Madras Act VIII of 1944. Under Section 53(1) of the Act, the Board in the case of a temple specified in the list referred to in Sub -section (1) of Section 51 and the Assistant Commissioner in the case of any other temple, may by order suspend, remove or dismiss any non -hereditary trustee on grounds specified therein. Admittedly the temple in question does not fall within the list referred to in Sub -section (1) of Section 51. Therefore it is the Assistant Commissioner that can remove or dismiss a non -hereditary trustee of this temple. Under Section 26 of the Act, if the Board is satisfied, that an Assistant Commissioner has failed to exercise any power or discharge any duty, which he ought to have exercised or discharged, the Board may by itself exercise such power or discharge such duty. It was in the purported exercise of such power conferred by this section that the Board passed the order above referred to.

(2.) A preliminary objection was taken that this Court has no jurisdiction to issue a writ of certiorari because of the ruling of the Judicial Committee in Ryots of Garabando v. The temple is admittedly situated outside the presidency town and the subject matter is the right of the petitioner to the office of trustee in the temple. Mr. Ramamurthi the learned Counsel for the petitioner, contended that the decision of the Judicial Committee in the Parlakimedi case would not apply to the facts of this case on account of two facts: (1) the Board of Commissioners for Hindu Religious Endowments must be treated as an inhabitant of the presidency town; and (2) the subject matter in dispute between the Board on the one hand and the petitioner on the other must be deemed to have arisen here. We are unable to accept his contentions. The Judicial Committee refused to accept the position that by the mere location of its office in the presidency town the Board of Revenue could be deemed to be an inhabitant thereof within the meaning of Section 8 of the Letters Patent. Their Lordships treated the Board of Revenue not as an ordinary subject but as an official body entrusted with particular duties including duties of a judicial character. The same reasoning would apply to the case of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Board which has been entrusted by statute with duties of a judicial character. In fact, it is because it is treated as an inferior tribunal that the petitioner has sought from this Court a writ of certiorari.

(3.) THE learned Counsel for the petitioner conceded that, if in the first instance, the Assistant Commissioner had passed an order dismissing him and on appeal the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Board had confirmed that order, he could not have come up to us for the issue of writ of certiorari. In our opinion, what has happened in the present case is, on principle, not very different. Just as in an appeal the Board could pass that order which the Assistant Commissioner to ought have passed in the first instance, even here the Board purported to pass an order which, if considered, the Assistant Commissioner ought to have passed himself. If this Court has no jurisdiction to quash the order of the Assistant Commissioner dismissing the petitioner, it would follow likewise that it has no jurisdiction to quash the order of the Board purporting to exercise the powers of an Assistant Commissioner under Section 26 of the Act.