ATMARAM BABAJI CHAWGALE Vs. NARAYAN ARJUN DERE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE plaintiff took proceedings under Chapter VII of the Presidency Small Cause Courts Act to eject the defendant from the premises in his occupation as a tenant. THE plaintiff is the President of the Twashta Kasar Community and the property in which the defendant was a tenant formed part of the endowment of a temple of the community called Shri Mahakali Samsthan. It was contended that the plaintiff was entitled to sue alone because the Board of Management had authorized the President to give notice and file ejectment suits on behalf of the community. That would not entitle the plaintiff to sue in his own name. THEre being numerous members of the community having the same interest in the suit, notice of the institution of the suit to all such persons as well as the permission of the Court was necessary for filing the suit as provided in Order I, Rule 8 of the Civil Procedure Code. In our opinion the notice given by the plaintiff was defective.

(2.) BUT we notice there is a further objection to the decree for possession which was given to the plaintiff, The learned Judge said;" the copper-smith shops near Pydhownie are the Samsthan property. That is the centre of business in that particular trade. The Managing Committee have now resolved to give these shops to members of their community in preference to outsiders. And in these hard times I do not see why members of any particular community may not ask for full participation in the communal estate. The case is, however, slightly complicated by the fact that the applicant is himself a member of the Managing Committee and has voted in his favour. BUT this again is a sign of backwardness in education rather than bona fides in the Board of Management." BUT the fact remains that it cannot be said that the community, assuming the property belongs to them, required the premises in suit for their own purposes reasonably and bona fide, when the intention was to turn out the existing tenant and put in one of the community, and the decision of the learned Judge cannot possibly be supported. The Rule, therefore, will be made absolute and the suit will be dismissed with costs throughout.