KALATTY MUDALI Vs. MANGAPATHI MUDALI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs and defendants 1 to 6 are members of Sangunthi Mndaliar community of the village of Sathravada, and the suit was for a declaration that the plaint topes are common properties of the said community, that the plaintiffs and the members of their faction are entitled to jointly possess and enjoy with defendants 1 to 6, and the members of their faction, the said topes, and for a permanent injunction restraining the defendants and their party from dealing with the topes or the income thereof, independently of the plaintiffs and their party, for any purpose not sanctioned by the general meeting of the whole community.

(2.) The plea of defendant 1 was that the topes belonged to Sri Varadharaja Swami temple of Sathravada, that the temple owned the topes from time immemorial and that the same were in the management of trustees of the temple all along, that the office of trusteeship of the temple was hereditarily in the family of defendants 1 and 2 and that defendant 1 was the then trustee of the temple. The Rajah of Karvetnagar was added as the dharmakartha of the temple and made defendant 7 in the case. His plea was that defendant 1 was not the trustee of the temple, but that he defendant 7 was the trustee. He also pleaded that the old accounts disclosed that the plaint topes were the properties of the Sangunthi community mentioned in the plaint, that the trees in the topes were being charged tree tax by defendant 7 and that pattas were issued in respect thereof. Defendant 7 accordingly admitted the title of the plaint community to the topes.

(3.) This litigation began in 1916. This matter came before the High Court on a former occasion, and the High Court on 8 April 1921, passed orders in Civil Revision Petition 342 of 1921, preferred against the order of remand passed by the Subordinate Judge on 6 March 1920, and the High Court directed three issues to be tried by the District Munsif instead of the issues specified in the order of remand passed by the Subordinate Judge (see p. 37 of the pleadings book). The District Munsif tried the issues framed in the case, and came to the conclusion that the title to the topes was in the Sangunthi community of the village of Sathravada and that they were not the properties of the temple of Sri Varadharaja Swami of Sathravada as contended for by defendant 1 and the other defendants 2 to 6.