SANGABASAVASWAMI MAHANTASWAMI Vs. BABURAO GANESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a second appeal from the judgment of the District Judge at Bijapur. The dispute between the parties relates to the claim of the appellants to take out a religious procession with what is described as vyasantol, which is equivalent to carrying the symbol of a cut arm of Vyas, the great Hindu mythological writer. It is alleged that he wrote verses in praise of God Vishnu. That enraged God Shiva, and thereupon the Nandi (bull) of Shiva attacked Vyas and the arm was cut off. Thereafter Vyas recognised the supremacy of Shiva over Vishnu. The plaintiffs now contend before us that under the circumstances this is a part of their religious belief.

(2.) The plaintiffs filed this suit claiming that they and the public have an inherent right, as citizens, to take out a procession with vyasantol according to their religion in the streets of Mangoli, in taluka Bagewadi, if Bijapur District. It is stated that they have got such right to take out a processiom on Bhadrapad Shud 5, at 9 a.m. every year, and they have been doing so for many years past over the route marked on the plan annexed to the plaint. The procession terminates at 3 p.m. at the end of the route shown on the map. The defendants are alleged to have wrongfully obstructed the taking out) of the procession with this symbol. The prayer is in these terms:

(3.) Mr. Desai commenced his argument by contending that although in the plaint it was contended that the plaintiffs had a right to take out a procession according to their religion, the public right was not limited to religious processions only. According to him, every member of the public, as a citizen, had a right to take out a procession, irrespective of the question whether it was a religious procession or not. In answer to Court, Mr. Desai admitted that in no decided case he had found such a general right admitted or conceded or upheld, He, however, relied on certain observations in two judgments of the Privy Council. The first case was Manzur Hasan v. Muhammad Zamin (1924) 27 Bom. L.R. 170, P.C.. That was a case in which certain members of the Shiah community desired to take out the Moharram procession with the ceremony called " matam," That meant that they stopped for a little while at intervals and wailed. The procession used to pass along the mosque of the Sunnis. The Sunnis objected to the inclusion of this particular ceremony, and, therefore, the matter came to Court. Their Lordships of the Privy Council considered whether a civil suit lay for establishing such a right. In discussing the rights of the parties to take out processions, their Lordships were discussing clearly the question of religious processions. Having regard to the controversy between the parties, there was no occasion to discuss the rights of citizens at large to take out processions, irrespective of the same being religious. In the course of his judgment, Lord Dunedin, after noticing certain decisions of the Madras High Court which dealt with religious processions, observed as follows (p. 173):