(1.) RULE returnable early. Heard finally with consent of the Counsel for the parties.
(2.) ALL these revision applications are heard together since they are arising out of common controversy of ownership and possession of temple premises on Sheet No. 10, City Survey No. 11/1991 situated within the municipal limits of Tahsil Katol, District : Nagpur. As such these revision applications are being disposed of by this common judgment.
(3.) IN order to understand the controversy involved in this matter, it is necessary to state first the factual position that emerges from the pleadings of the parties in Special Civil Suit No. 511/2000 pending on the file of Civil Judge, Senior Division, Nagpur. Applicants claim to be the owners of the temple premises in which their family deity is installed. Admittedly, this temple is known to the residents of Katol and also registered in the Revenue Records and in the Maharashtra State Gazetteer and Central Provinces District Gazetteer as Chandika Devi Temple. It is also admitted that this temple is of Hemadpanthi Style and believed to have been built during the regime of one king Chandrahansa , who is supposed to have ruled over this territory in the dimed and distant past and that the entry of this temple is found in the first edition of this Government gazetteer which came to be published in the year 1908. However, the applicants claimed their ownership and occupation of the temple on the basis of the averments and contentions in their pleadings that the construction of this temple in the year 1916 was made by their forefathers.