VEERARAGHAVA THATHACHARIAR Vs. KRISHNASWAMI THATHACHARIAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit was brought for the recovery of emoluments amounting to Rs. 167-1-11. It was decreed by the District Munsif for the appreciably lesser amount of Rs. 127-4. That decree was confirmed by the District Court against whose decision this second appeal has been preferred, valuing it at Rs. 127-4. But the eight grounds mentioned in the memorandum of second appeal are concerned only with that portion of the plaintiffs claim which relates to the emoluments due to other temple servants (other than the plaintiff) working during the annual festival of the Sri Manavala Mahamuni shrine, which is a minor shrine situated in the famous Conjeevaram Varadaraja swami temple. The emoluments thus in question in this second appeal amount to the rather paltry sum of Rs. 5-1-0 (at the rate of Re. 6-13-6 per year for the six years before suit).

(2.) This litigation is now nearly 10 years old, the plaint having been filed on the 2nd January 1906. This second-appeal which really relates (as above said) to this sum of Rs. 5-1-0, is itself now nearly five years old and has been heard by three different Benches of this Court.

(3.) It is well known that this famous temple intended for gods wordship has been in a large degree converted into a field for the sowing of a crop of continual litigation, both civil and criminal, (such litigation being mostly of a childish and trivial, though of a very intricate and ingenious, character) between the Vadagalais and the Tengalais during more than 60 years past. The time of the Courts in dealing with this mass of litigation, cannot be said to be wholly wasted, as the legal learning and acumen of both Bench and Bar have been sharpened and improved and numerous Valuable decisions on questions of law have found their way into the authorised and other reports.