TMI Blog1974 (4) TMI 121X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hikari Choudhary and Ram Lochan Choudhary, and Amir Prasad Choudhary, son of their brother, for himself and as guardian of Ramakant Prasad Choudhary, who were all members of joint Hindu family executed on 17.6.1921 a samarpannama by which they dedicated certain properties to the above mentioned temple. By that deed of dedication they completely divested themselves of any interest in the properties except that they and the members of their families were to be shebaits. By the same deed five persons, who were absolute strangers to the family, were appointed panches to take the rendition of account of the income and expenditure from the manager, shebait for the time being year after year on the death of the, executants. ...If in the opinion o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt, and that he had been appointed shebait and manager of all the dedicated properties covered by the earlier two samarpannamas. He also directed that the stipulations contained in the samarpannama dated the 7th December, 1928 in respect of maintenance of account of income and expenditure of the dedicated property, shall hold good in respect of the management of the dedicated property and maintenance of the account of income and expenditure. He mentioned nothing about the panches mentioned in the earlier deed, but provided that as (to) the appointment of shebaits in future, the practice to be followed will be that the shebait in office shall be fully competent to (appoint) during his life time or that after him he who amongst his sons be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... been influenced by a wrong reading of Section 2(g)(i) of the Act, especially the words to participate in any religious or charitable ministration under such trust . He mistook the word 'ministration' to be 'administration'. The difference between the words would make all the difference as to whether any member of the public could be said to be interested in the religious trust. We have called for and perused the copy of the Act as printed in the official publication and we find that the word used is 'ministration' and not 'administration'. The question for decision in this case, therefore, has to be decided on the grounds other than the supposed presence of the word 'administration' in Section 2(g)( ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the present case. Only in the absence of male issue, the entire immovable property was to stand endowed in the name of the deity. Half of the income from the properties was to be taken by the two wives of the testator for their maintenance during their lifetime. If a son was born to the testator then the properties were to be divided between the son and the temple. A committee of four persons was appointed to look after the management of the temple and its properties, and of these, two were not the relations of the testator. The committee may appoint the testator's nephew as Mutawalli by their unanimous opinion . The documents in the present case are only slightly different in that they provide for the members of the family being sheba ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t properly, it is decisive of the question as to the public character of the temple. There could be no better indication of the fact that the members of the public were associated with the management of the temple and interest in its management was created in them, thus bringing the matter directly within Clause (g) of Section 2 of the Act. The fact that this provision regarding the panches was to come into effect only after the death of the executants of the deed, does not affect the merits of the question. We are also of opinion that the learned Judges of the High Court were not correct in their view that the fact that members of the public took part in the worship in the temple and the provision for faqirs etc, was of no significance, an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
