RAMAKRUSHNA MOHAPATRA Vs. GANGADHAR MOHAPATRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a defendant's appeal (defendants 1 to 4 and 6 to 10) against the reversing judgment of the first additional subordinate Judge, Puri, decreeing the plaintiff's suit for a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from constructing a two -storied building within the inner compound wall of the temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri, any higher than the height of the said wall, and for restraining the defendants from defacing the said compound wall in any manner and to demolish the recent brick structure constructed over the same.

(2.) THE plaintiffs described themselves as the members of an association or 'Nijog' commonly known as

(3.) THE plaintiffs' case was that the defendants' association or 'Nijog' ever since the establishment of the temple was allotted a site with certain structure at the north eastern corner of the inner compound wall known as 'Kurma Prachir'. The said structure was a small room, the two walls of the inner compound in the north and in the east forming its two side walls. This room was intended for the 'Pratiharis' to take rest while they were on duty, the local name of it being 'Pratihari Nijog Bada'. Recently, the defendants wanted to construct a two -storied building on that site. Thus, while proceeding to construct a terraced roof over the room allotted to them, the defendants have broken the ornamented conical portions which adorned the top of the inner compound wall with a view to level it up to facilitate the constuction of an upper storey over it by erecting further brick walls on the aforesaid two sides of the compound wall. To the said construction the plaintiffs objected on two grounds: