GADADHAR RAMANUJ DAS Vs. PROVINCE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the plaintiffs from the judgment of the District Judge of Cuttack dismissing their suit for a declaration that the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1939 (Orissa Act, IV of 1939) was ultra vires of the Orissa Legislature and for other consequential reliefs. The appellant plaintiffs are all Mahants of various Maths situated in the Province of Oriasa and the suit was brought by them in a representative capacity under Order X, Rule 8, Civil P. C. No evidence was led by either side and the sole question in dispute is a question of law regarding the competence of the Orissa Legislature to enact the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1939, hereinafter referred to as the impugned Act.

(2.) THE impugned Act was passed by the Orissa Legislative Assembly and received the assent of the Governor. General on 31st August 1933. The Assembly passed the said Act in exercise of the legislative powers conferred on them by Sections 99(1) and 100(3), Government of India Act, 1935, read with items 34 and 64 of List II of Schedule VII to that Act. The assent of the Governor -General was obtained under Section 107(2) of that Act with a view to cure any repugnancy that may exist between any of its provisions and any of the provisions of an existing Indian law relating to matters in the Concurrent List.

(3.) BEFORE discussing the legal questions involved in this appeal I may briefly describe the salient features of the impugned Act. The preamble says that the objection of the Act is 'to provide for the better administration and governance of certain Hindu religious endowments.' Public temples and Maths were brought within the scope of the Act and all the properties belonging to or given or endowed for the support of Maths or temples were defined as 'religious endowment' or 'endowment'. The extent clause (Section 2 (a)) made it however clear that the Act extended to the whole of what was then known as the Province of Orissa and that it applied only to Hindu public religious endowments. A statutory authority designated as 'Commissioner of Hindu Religious Endowments' (hereinafter referred to as the Commissioner) was constituted for the purpose of exercising general superintendence over all religious endowments and to secure the proper working of the Act. But his actions were subject to the general control of the Provincial Government and he himself was required to be a member of either the Judicial or the Executive Service of the Province. There are several provisions dealing with the nature of the control to be exercised by the Commissioner over Maths and temples and it is unnecessary to refer to them in detail. In Ch. VIII of the Act, the finacial provisions (Sections 49, 50 and 5l) were inserted and these provisions have been the main target of attack, I may quote Sub -section (1) of Section 49 which is the main charging provision in the whole Act.