JANA MUHAMMAD SULEMAN Vs. KADIRSA LEVVAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under Section 115, Civil P. C., to revise an order of the District Judge of Tanjore East, granting a temporary injunction in a suit pending before the District Munsif of Tiruthuraipundi. The question relates to the office of imam in a mosque. The plaintiffs claim to be imams of the mosque and the right to officiate in all religious ceremonies in the houses of the Mahomedans of the locality. The defendants case is that they are the peish imams and they have got the right to officiate in the mosque and also at the religious ceremonies in the houses of the Mahomedans. With regard to the office of imam, it is a well- recognized office, and when there is a dispute about it, it is open to the Court to issue a temporary injunction in the interests of the people as well as of the disputants and in order to avoid breach of the peace. But the injunction that has been issued is too wide in its terms. Even granting that the plaintiffs have a right to be the imams of the mosque, the Mahomedans of the locality cannot be compelled to engage their services at the marriages and other ceremonies in their houses. In a case of a Mahomedan marriage the presence of the imam or kazi is not absolutely necessary, the marriage being a civil contract. In order to evidence the contract a kazi is present, but the presence of the kazi is not of absolute necessity for the validity of a Mahomedan marriage and, therefore, the people of the locality are not bound to call in any man obnoxious to them. Therefore the injunction restraining the defendants from officiating at the marriage and other ceremonies in the houses of the Mahomedans is clearly illegal and has been passed without jurisdiction. Sheik Umar V/s. Budan Khan [1914] 37 Mad. 228 is an authority for the proposition that a kazi has not the exclusive privilege or the right to officiate at the marriage of Mahomedans.

(2.) THE next question is whether this portion of the injunction can be separated from the other portion which relates to the leading of worship in the mosque. If the plaintiffs as imams have the right to lead the congregational services in the mosque, no other person has the right to interfere with it. I, therefore, set aside the order of the District Judge, so far as it relates to the performance of ceremonies in the houses of the Mahomedans, as it was passed without jurisdiction. It is open to the Mahomedans of the locality to engage the services of anybody to be present at the marriages and other religious ceremonies in their houses. With regard to the other portion it cannot be said that it was passed without jurisdiction, though I must say that some of the Judge's observations as regards the right of the plaintiffs are premature. With this modification the civil revision petition is dismissed but in the circumstances without costs.