Judgement

Consolidated Appeal (No. 46 of 1922) by special leave from two decrees (December 22, 1916) of the High Court, affirming two decrees (April 24, 1914) of the Subordinate Judge of Tanjore.

The respondents, who were trustees of a Hindu temple in Tanjore, brought two suits to eject, after notice, the respondents, tenants in the inam village of Mangal, which formed part of the endowed property of the temple. The defences of the appellants were on two grounds. First, that the village was an "estate" within the meaning of s. B, sub-s. 2 (d), of the Madras Estates Land Act (Mad. Act I. of 1908), and that accordingly they had a permanent right of occupancy by s. 6 of that Act. Secondly, that they had that right apart from the Act.

The decision of the issues relating to both defences depended to a great extent upon documents in which occurred vernacular terms the meaning of which, as used in Tanjore, was obscure.

The facts and the terms of the sanad of 1723, by which the Mahratta King of Tanjore, in confirmation of an earlier inam grant, had granted the village to the temple at a favourable assessment (rokkaguthakai), appear from the judgment of the Judicial Committee, as also the t