GOBINDA RAMANUJ DAS MOHANTA Vs. RAM CHARAN DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The questions raised in this appeal are rather out of the ordinary: they relate to the right to succeed to a Mohuntship, and to enjoy possession of the property belonging to the foundation.

(2.) The appellant is the plaintiff, Gobinda Ramanuj Das, commonly called Chota Gobinda to distinguish him from another Gobinda, the Gobinda through whom the defendant claims.

(3.) In the district of Midnapaore there is a mutt called the Nayaganj Bara Asthal. It has subordinate asthals, one of them at Shyamchandpur. The Thakurs installed in the mutt are Sri Sri Gopinath Jiu and Raghunath Jiu, and the seba is performed by members of the Ramanuj Section Nothing is known of the foundation of the mutt. The earliest document on the record is one of 1841 by which one Nitai Singh gave various pieces of land to the then Mohunt Lachman for the purpose of carrying on the seba of Sri Sri Gopinath Jiu, and of another Thakur Sri Sri Sitaram Jiu to be installed at Shyamchandpur.