CHINNAN CHETTIAR Vs. VSUNDARESA AYYAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This civil revision petition has been preferred by one Chinnan Chettiar who was removed from his office as one of the Dharmakarthas of Sri Anantheswaraswami temple at Chidambaram by the Subordinate Judge of Cuddalore on application made for that purpose by some of the worshippers at that temple. It is unnecessary to state or discuss the grounds on which such removal was sought. The application for such removal was apparently made under the powers reserved in a scheme framed for the management of the temple in O.S. No. 14 of 22 on the file of the same Court. One curious feature, however, of the matter is that the said Chinnan Chettiar who had, even previously to the scheme suit, been a trustee was virtually removed from office under the decree in the scheme suit but was again appointed as one of the trustees under the scheme newly framed.

(2.) It is not necessary here and now to refer to or criticize such a procedure. The matter has been argued before me as a pure question of law. The point taken by the learned vakil who appeared for the petitioner was that, having regard to the provisions of Section 92, Civil P.C. the relief by way of removal of a trustee duly appointed could be obtained only in a suit filed under that section and it was therefore incompetent to any of the worshippers to come in by way of a petition and seek to remove him. It is in this view that it has recently been held in more than one case that any provision in any scheme framed by the Court to the effect that on an application to the Court under the scheme framed a trustee can be removed is ultra vires of the provisions of Section 92 Civil P.C. Indeed this position was really conceded by Mr. Patanjali Sastri, the learned vakil for the respondents.

(3.) For the purpose of the present discussion it is not open to any one to get behind the decree and canvass its provisions so far as the re-appointment as trustee is concerned of the petitioner