COLLECTOR OF DACCA Vs. JAGAT CHUNDER GOSWAMI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application for Letters of Administration to the estate, which is very small, of one Gopal Das Bairagee, who died in the month of Magh 1303. He was a bairagee, that is an ascetic, and the petitioner is his preceptor's preceptor, and, as such, claims to be entitled to such Letters of Administration. His application is resisted by the Secretary of State, who alleges that the deceased died without leaving any heir and that his estate has escheated to Government.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that, according to the custom which prevails in the sect, of which he and the deceased disciple were respectively members, he, as the preceptor of the dead man's preceptor, is entitled to his property: to which the Secretary of State replies that no such custom has been satisfactorily proved in this case.

(3.) In the observations I am about to make I am dealing only with the concrete case now before us, namely, that of a dead disciple, who was initiated by a disciple, who was the disciple of, and was initiated by, the preceptor, who is now seeking Letters of Adiministration.