Judgement

Appeal (No. 121 of 1930) from a decree of the High Court (August 8, 1928), which modified a decree of the Subordinate Judge of Ranchi (May 26, 1924).

The appellants, representing the Digambari sect of the Jain community, instituted a suit against the respondents, representing the Swetambari sect of that community, alleging that various acts done or threatened to be done by the Swetambaris on Parasnath Hill were an unlawful interference with the rights of worship of the Digambaris.

31 Law Rep. 60 Ind. App. 313 ( 1932- 1933) Sir Seth Hukum C hand V. Maharaj Bahadur Singh

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The trial judge made certain declarations and granted injunctions prayed for ; upon appeal the High Court (Ross and Wort JJ.) set aside certain of the declarations, and corresponding injunctions, but otherwise affirmed the judgment.

The facts of the case, and the grounds of the judgments in the High Court appear from the judgment of the Judicial Committee.

1933. March 10, 13, 14. De Gruyther K.C., Hyam and Champat Rai Jain for the appellants.

Dunne K.C. and Wallach for the respondents.

May 12. The judgment of their Lordships was delivered by

SIR JOHN WALLIS. This case is the result of further disputes between the two sects of Jain as to their rights of worship on Parasnath Hill. As so much turns on the beliefs now entertained by the whole Jain community with reference to the sacred character of this hill, their Lordships will begin by citing the opening paragraphs of the judgment delivered by Lord Phillimore a few years ago in Maharaj Bahadur Singh v. Hukum Chand (( 1925) 24 All. L. J. 100 (P. C.).), in which this subject is most felicitously dealt with.

" The Jains recognize 24 highly saintly personages—men who have attained salvation or nirvana, who are called tirthankars (finders of the ford, across the river of death). These four and twenty are counted in many respects as higher than the gods or some of the gods in the Hindu pantheon. Twenty of them are believed to have attained nirvana in the present cycle of the worlds history upon the Hill Parasnath in the district of Hazaribagh in Bengal, with the result that the hill is held in reverence by Jains. The hill itself has some remarkable natural features, and rises into several peaks. Twenty spots apparently marked out by natural features, are believed to be places from which the 20 tirthankars quitted earth ; and at each of these spots, a footprint of the saint is worshipped. There is a small enclosure covered with a cupola, which at the present moment is made of white marble. These spots have been set apart from remote antiquity. The four remaining tirthankars quitted earth in other parts of India. In respect of them conventional spots have been since the year 1868 set apart and treated in a similar way. Upon the hill there are also a shrine to a lesser saint called Gautama Swami, an important temple in one of the highest parts of the mountain called Jalmandil, certain platforms set apart for religious contemplation, and two dharmasalas or rest-houses for pilgrims. The hill is much frequented by pilgrims, who take the 24 shrines or tonks in regular order, worshipping at each. According to the tenets of the Digambara, this worship must be performed fasting, and the whole hill is so sacred that from the moment they set foot on it, they must abstain from any office of nature, even spitting."

These practices are observed on their pilgrimages by the Swetambaris as well, but the Digambaris in the present case go much further and take up the position that any course of action inconsistent with their due observance, such as the regular and continuous employment of human beings on the hill or the building thereon of dwellings for them, necessarily involves a sacrilegious pollution and desecration of the sacred hill which they have a right to restrain. These are matters for the Jains themselves, and the Civil Courts are only concerned with them in so far as they are relevant to questions of civil right