Sir John Edge :-

This is an appeal by the defendants from an order of the High Court at Madras dated the 25th September, 1919, by which it was declared that the temple of Sri Kandaswami, otherwise known as Sri Subramaniaswami in the village of Kalipatta, situate in district of Salem, was a public religious institution, and remanding the suit to the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Salem with a direction that a scheme for the management of the temple should be framed by that Court in the light of the observations contained in the judgment delivered by the High Court. In the plaint it had been alleged that the defendants were unfit to be the pujaris or dharmakartas of the temple and it was prayed that they should be removed from office. By the order of remand that prayer was disallowed.

The plaintiffs are Hindus who worship at the temple. They are not related to the family of the defendants. The first plaintiff is a Brahmin, the other two plaintiffs and the defendants are Sudras by caste. The first defendant has been for some years the pujari of the temple; he succeeded his father as pujari of the temple, and his father succeeded as pujari of the temple his father Lakshmana Goundan,