BASANT KUMAR PRADHAN Vs. SRI LAXMIDHAR SAHOO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by the judgment dated 28.5.1994 passed by the Additional Assistant Commissioner of Endowments, Cuttack Zone, Cuttack in O.A. No.4 of 1989 which was confirmed by the Deputy Commissioner of Endowments, Orissa, Bhubaneswar in his judgment dated 16.1.1999 rendered in F.A. No.4 of 1995, the Inspector of Endowments has preferred this appeal under Section 44 (2) of the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act').

(2.) The respondents herein filed an application under Section 41 of the Act before the Additional Assistant Commissioner of Endowments, Cuttack Zone, Cuttack with a prayer to declare the religious institution of Shri Laxminarayan Jew Thakur Bije, Chauliaganj, District-Cuttack as a private deity. The respondents in the said application pleaded that Shri Madan Mohan Thakur Bije, Chauliaganj, Cuttack, a public deity, was being worshipped by the general public of Chauliaganj and the residents of the said area mainly consisting of people of "Thatari Caste" and "Teli Caste". Subsequently, in course of tie, as bitterness grew up between the two castes with regard to worship of the said deity Shri Madan Mohan Thakur Bije, as a result of which, various civil and criminal cases were filed, the ancestors of the respondents who are Teli by caste stopped going to the said deity for offering puja and within the vicinity of Teli Sahi at Chauliaganj installed the deity "Bhagabat Goswain" where no outsiders went to worship the said deity. Subsequently, the ancestors of the respondents decided to install Shri Laxminarayan Jew Thakur as the deity in the said premises of Bhagabat Goswain. It was further pleaded that the management and affairs of the said deity. Shri Laxminarayan Jew Thakur were being looked after by the ancestors of the respondents and the property described in the schedule of the petition were all endowed in favour of the said deity by the people belonging to the Teli Caste of the locality. However, a Trust Board was constituted under Section 27 of the Act with some of the respondents as Managing Trustees and the Inspector of Endowments was directed to look after the land acquisition cases of the deity pending in the Court of the learned Subordinate Judge, First Court, Cuttack.

(3.) It appears that objecting to constitution of such a Trust Board, the respondents filed the application under Section 41 of the Act to declare the said deity as a private deity of the respondents and not a public deity. The opp.parties 4 and 5 (Nilamani Sahoo and Biswanath Sahoo) in the said application were impleaded as representatives of the General Hindu Public who filed a separate written statement in the case. The opp.party No.3 in the said application, i.e., the Inspector of Endowments, Sadar, Cuttack, who is the appellant before this Court,filed a separate written statement in the said proceeding under Section 41 of the Act. The Additional Assistant Commissioner of Endowments, Cuttack Zone, Cuttack framed as many as four issues which are as follows:-