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S.MURTAZA FAZAL ALI, A.P.SEN
Krishna Singh – Appellant
Versus
Mathura Ahir – Respondent
The Honorable Court held that merely joining the Ram Snehi Samartha sect does not automatically amount to civil death. The Court emphasized that civil death in Hindu law is contingent upon the performance of specific renunciation rites and ceremonies that demonstrate a clear intention to sever all worldly ties and property rights. Without the completion of such recognized religious acts, membership in the sect alone does not suffice to establish civil death. The Court clarified that civil death involves a formal process of renunciation, and mere adherence or membership without these rites does not alter the individual's civil status or legal capacity (!) .
Furthermore, the Court observed that the legal implications of civil death are significant, particularly regarding property rights and legal capacity, and these cannot be assumed solely based on religious affiliation unless accompanied by the requisite renunciation acts. Therefore, the Court concluded that joining the sect without performing the prescribed rites does not result in civil death, and the individual retains all civil rights and obligations (!) .
JUDGMENT
SEN, J. :— This is an appeal by special leave from a judgment and decree of the Allahabad High Court dated November 2, 1971 in a suit for declaration of title to, and possession of house No. C-27-33 situate in Mohalla Jagatganj, Varanasi for arrears of rent and mesne profits in respect thereof.
2. The principal point in controversy between the parties in this appeal is whether the plaintiff, Mathura Ahir, being a Sudra could not be ordained to a religious Order and become a Sannyasi or Yati and, therefore, installed as a Mahant of the Garwaghat Math according to the tents of the Sant Mat Sampradaya. A subsidiary question arises as to whether in a absence of proof of the performance of Atma Sradh and the recitation of Pravesh Mantra neither the plaintiff nor his two predecessors Swami Sarupanand and Swami Atmaviveknand could be regarded as Hindu sanyasis. It also raises a further question namely whether the first respondent, Narsewanand, the original plaintiff having died during the tendency of the appeal, the appeal abates in its entirety.
3. The facts of the case are set forth with utmost particularity in the judgment of the High Court. It will, therefore, not be inconvenie
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