GANGA CHARAN Vs. RAM CHANDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a defendants appeal and arises out of a suit for possession of certain property that was dedicated to a certain deity by one Pandit Manni Ram by a deed of endowment, dated the 10 January 1899. By that deed. Manni Ram appointed himself and one Gulab Shankar as sarbarakars of the endowed property. Manni Ram died in or about the year 1900 and Gulab Shankar alone continued to act as sarbarakar of the endowed property.

(2.) By a deed styled as a deed of gift dated the 17 December 1912, Gulab Shankar appointed the defendant-appellant as trustee and manager in his place. About three months prior to the institution of the suit giving rise to the present appeal Gulab Shankar died. Udho Ram, the heir of Manni Ram, on the 15th December 1922, executed a document in favour of the plaintiff by which he appointed the plaintiff as trustee and sarbarakar of the endowed property.

(3.) The plaintiff's case was that Gulab Shankar had no right to nominate a successor of his own, or to appoint a trustee of the endowed property, and that, notwithstanding the execution of the deed of gift of 1912, Gulab Shankar continued to act as sarbarakar till the date of his death and that after Gulab Shankar's death the right to appoint a sarbarakar and trustee of the endowed property vested in the heirs of the founder of the trust. The plaintiff maintained that the defendant was in possession of the endowed property as a trespasser and accordingly claimed the relief referred to above.