RAM PRASAD GUPTA Vs. RAMKISHUN PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application in revision against an order of the District Judge of Shahabad dismissing the petitioners application under Section 18, Religious Endowments Act (20 of 1863), for leave to institute a suit for the removal of the muttawali of a Hindu endowment in the town of Arrah.

(2.) The learned District Judge has held that the petitioners are interested in the trust, that they were animated by bona fide motives and that there has been mismanagement and breach of the trust. He has however held that the petitioners have failed to show that the endowment was a public endowment and that in order to bring the case within the provisions of Section 18 of the Act it was necessary to show that the endowment was a public endowment. The application for leave to sue was therefore dismissed on the sole ground that the endowment in question was not of a public nature. The point for consideration therefore is whether it is necessary, to attract the provision of Section 18 of the Act, that the endowment must be of a public nature; and secondly, whether the endowment in the present case is a public endowment.

(3.) On behalf of the petitioners it is contended that it is not necessary to prove for the purposes of Section 18 of the Act that the endowment must be of a public nature. Act 20 of 1863 was primarily passed to relieve the Boards of Revenue and the local agents in the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, and the Presidency of Port Saint George, from the duties imposed on them by Regulation 19 of 1810 of the Bangal Code and Regulation 7 of 1817 of the Madras Code, as is evident from the preamble of the Act. Secs.3 to 13 of the Act provide the mode of transferring to the trustees etc., of the trust property which were then held in charge of the Boards of Revenue, for deciding disputes as to the right of succession to trusteeship, the rights of the trustees to whom the property was to be transferred, for appointment of committees for exercising the powers which were till then exercised by the Boards of Revenue or the Local Agents, for the constitution and duties of those committees and the qualifications of the members thereof, for their tenure of office, for the manner of filling up vacancies, and for duties of trustees and of the committees as to accounts, etc Section 14 of the Act then provides for suits by persons interested in any mosque, temple or religious establishment, or in the performance of the worship or of the service thereof, or the trusts relating thereto, against the trustees, managers or superintendents of the mosques and religious establishments for any misfeasance, breach of trust or neglect of duty committed by them. Section 18 provides that no suit contemplated by Section 14 shall be entertained without the leave of the Court previously obtained, and "Court" has been defined in Section 2 as the principal Court of original civil jurisdiction in the district in which the mosque, temple or religious establishment is situate.