JETHABHAI NURSEY Vs. CHAPSEY COOVERJI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This rather heavy litigation was the unfortunate result of a division or faction in the Cutchi Dassa Oswal caste, to which both the parties belong. At the time of the suit the defendant was President and the plaintiff was a member of the Managing Committee of the caste while both the plaintiff and defendant were trustees of two trust funds established by the caste, under separate trust deeds, called the Derasar and Sadharan funds.

(2.) The plaintiff sued for a declaration that he was entitled to inspect and take copies of all the books and documents of the Mahajan, the Managing Committee, the Sub-Committee and the Trustees; and for an injunction restraining the defendant from interfering with the plaintiff's exercise of his rights in this regard. The defendant's main answers to the suit were that the question in dispute was a purely caste question outside the jurisdiction of the Court; that the plaintiff was not entitled to inspect the minute books of the Sub-Committee or the correspondence file; and that no cause of action had arisen against the defendant who had never refused or denied the plaintiff's right to take inspection of such documents as he had a valid claim to see.

(3.) The learned Judge below found that the suit was properly cognisable by the Court; that the plaintiff had a (right to free inspection of all the books and documents of the caste; and that the. defendant had on the 7 September 1905 denied the plaintiff's right. He, therefore, made a decree declaring that the plaintiff was entitled to inspect and take copies of all or any of the books, and restraining the defendant from interfering with the plaintiff's exercise of his right.