Judgement

Consolidated Appeal (No. 6 of 1931) from a judgment and decree of the High Court (November 30, 1927) reversing a judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge of Masulipatam (February 5, 1925).

The action out of which this appeal arose was instituted in 1923 by the appellants, as representing the interested public, under Order 1, r. 8, of the Code of Civil Procedure, seeking a declaration that five temples of the village of Vellatur, Guntur District, were public temples, and that certain inam lands in Kowthavaram village formed the endowment of the temples, and also claiming certain other relief.

The five temples were built by Thadikonda Seshayya, the grandfather of the first respondents adoptive father. During his lifetime T. Seshayya conducted the festivals and other affairs of the deities, and by his will he directed his widow to make a permanent endowment for the temples out of his self-acquired properties. She in due course purchased lands in Kowthavaram and another village and made a formal gift of the lands to the idols. In 1838, T. Seshayyas two sons, Ganapati and Gajanana, who as dharmakartas were then conducting the festivals and the affairs of the temples, execu