Sir John Beaumont.-

These are consolidated appeals from the judgment and two decrees of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, in its appellate jurisdiction, both dated 10th October 1934, the first modifying a decree of the Joint Judge of Ahmedabad dated 30th June 1927, and the second a decree of the first class Subordinate Judge of Ahmedabad dated 3rd January 1929. The appeals relate to the affairs of the Northern Diocese of the Swaminarayan sect, the head of which is the Acharya of Ahmedabad. The appellants are members of the said sect who have been substituted for the original plaintiffs in the suit who died pending the hearing of this appeal. It is common ground that the Swaminarayan sect was founded in the early part of the 19th century by a religions reformer of northern India, named Sajanand. He built a number of temples, the principal of which were the Nar Narayan temple at Ahmedabad, and the Lakshmi Narayan temple at Vadtal in the Kaira district. In 1827 three years before his death he divided India into two dioceses, north and south, the center of the former being at Ahmedabad, and of the latter at Vadtal, and, on his death, he appointed one of his nephews Acharya of one