Judgment

RAGHUBAR DAYAL, J. : This is an appeal on a certificate granted by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, against the judgment and order of the High Court reversing the judgment and order of the District Judge, Vizagapatam, holding that the place of worship in suit was not a temple as defined in the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1926 (Madras Act II of 1927), hereinafter called the Act.

2. On March 28, 1947, the Board of Commissioners for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Madras, held the institution in suit to be a temple as defined in the Act. The appellants, thereafter, filed a petition under S. 84(2) of the Act, in the Court of the District Judge, Vizagapatam, and prayed for the setting aside of the order of the Board. They alleged that the institution known as the Poohari Fakir Sadvarthy, at Bondilipuram, Chicacole, a long-standing institution, was started by one Malukdas Bavajee, some time during the reign of the Moghul Emperor, Aurangazeb. The Emperor, in recognition of the Bavajee s piety and devotion to God, made certain grants to him with the object and purpose of enabling him to maintain himself and carry on the distribution of Sadavarthi to Fakirs and