AMBALAVANA PANDARA SANNIDHI Vs. MEENAKSHI SUNDARESWARAL DEVASTANAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a suit brought by the Pandara Sannidhi of an important mutt situated in Tanjore to recover possession of four villages situated in the Madura District. He alleges that he is huqdar or trustee of the " Thanappa Mudali Kattalai," which is an endowment for the performance of certain ceremonies in a temple at Madura, and that these villages form part of that endowment, and that, therefore, as such trustee he is entitled to their possessior. The defendants are the manager of the temple and the members of the temple committee appointed by the Government under Act XX. of 1863. They deny that the plaintiff is trustee of the endowment, or that he has any right either to the management or to the possession of the properties in question, and they further allege that if he had at any time such right his claim is barred by limitation.

(2.) IN the Court of first instance the Subordinate Judge decided In favour of the defendants on the ground that the plaintiff had failed to prove that he was trustee of the endowment, and also on the ground of the Limitation Act. On appeal to the High Court, both judges agreed with his finding that the plaintiff's suit was barred by limitation, but they differed in opinion as to whether the plaintiff had proved his claim to be trustee of the endowment. In the result, therefore, the plaintiff's suit was dismissed in both Courts, and from these decisions the present appeal is brought.

(3.) THE income derived from the villages in suit has been applied in various ways during this period. During the time that they remained under attachment by the Mahomedan Government it would seem that a portion of the income was applied to the uses of the endowment, and the remainder was appropriated by that Government. There is no evidence as to what happened between 1790 and 1801. From 1801 to 1849, while the villages in question were in the possession of the East India Company, the revenue from them was applied in whole or in part by the company to the uses of the. endowment. In the earlier years it appears to have been handed over as a whole, but from the year 1817 the Government followed the practice of settling each year a budget showing the amount necessary for the expenses of the kattalai for that year, paying over only so much of the income as was sufficient to satisfy that budget, and retaining the remainder. Since 1849 the villages have been in the hands of the predecessors of the defendants, and the whole of the revenue has been used for the purposes of the endowment (including the expenses of the temple) according to the directions of the temple manager and the temple committee.