NARAYANI THAKURANI AND NILAKANTHESWAR DEB, BIJE & OTHERS Vs. COMMISSIONER OF ENDOWMENTS, BHUBANESWAR & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed under section 44(2) of the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowment Act 1951 (in short "Act") against the judgment and order dated 21.07.2011 passed by the learned Deputy Commissioner Endowment, Odisha, Bhubaneswar in F.A. No. 14 of 2006. The appellant filed an application under section 41 of the Act to declare them as the hereditary trustees of the deity "Narayani Thakurani" & "Shri Nilakantheswar Deb" Bije at Jamarsuan, Post - Gadamrugasira in the District of Puri and the property owned by it.

(2.) The case of the appellants is that they are the hereditary trustees of the above deity. It is stated that the Commissioner of Endowment by order No. 2680(7) 293 N.P. dated 10.03.2005 has arbitrarily formed a Non-Hereditary Trust Board for the management of the affairs of the said deity in exercise of power under section 7 of the Act. According to them it came to their knowledge on 19.03.2005, when there was publication of the said order in the locality by beat of drums. It is also stated that so far as the properties standing recorded in the name of the deities are concerned, the appellants have been recorded as the Marfatdars in the record of right published in the year 1977 as also in the consolidation record of right of the year 1999. It is further stated that the said properties were entrusted to one Bhagaban Das, father of late Chandra Das by the then intermediary long back in the year 1882 namely, Mahanta Bhagaban Ramanuj Dash of a Matha of Puri. After construction of the temple, the deities have been installed by said Mahanta and Bhagaban Das enjoyed the property and managed the entire affairs of the deities and the temple including the seba puja as if their family deities. It is next stated that the documents created at that time were lost because of improper keeping. However, in the settlement of the year 1891, 1910, 1927 and 1977, the name of late Chandra Das and his successors had appeared in the record of right.

(3.) The respondent no. 4 to 10 who are the persons inducted in the Non-Hereditary Trust Board contested the proceeding by filing written statement. It is their case that the deity is in existence since creation of village which is much prior to the year 1982. According to them, initially the temple was there in thatched house and subsequently permanent constructions have been made. It is stated that "Shri Nilakantheswar Deb" is as incarnated and the deity "Narayani Thakurani" had been established by the villagers and other religious minded people and they had endowed the land. The villagers had engaged pujakas for performing the seba pujas and only for connivance those sebakas had then been recorded as Marfatdars. It is also their case that Bhagaban Das was not the first Sebaka. Prior to him; other persons were engaged as Sebaka. It is next stated that in the Super Cyclone which had caused devastation in the year 1999, the temple of Narayani Thakurani was severely affected and thereafter the villagers have built the pucca temple by spending around a sum of Rs. 2.5 lakhs. They have also constructed a platform near it. The villagers had installed the deity and had brought the ancestor of the appellants for the purpose of performing seba puja of the deity. They claim to have been in management of the affairs of the deities and the temple all along and the recording of the name of the appellants in the record of right as Marfatdar is said to be just for connivance and those do not clothe them with any right as hereditary trustee. The recording of the lands is also said to be for the purpose of facilitating the payment of rent.