JUDGMENT :

MOHAN M. SHANTANAGOUDAR, J.

The judgment dated 14.11.2007 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Writ Appeal No. 984 of 2007 is called into question in this appeal.

By the impugned judgment, the Division Bench set aside the order dated 21.05.2003 of the Tehsildar, Ankola Taluk and the consequential mutation entry No. 7948 dated 28.05.2003 in respect of the suit property; the order dated 30.07.2005 passed by the Assistant Commissioner, Kumta and the order dated 23.03.2006 passed by the Deputy Commissioner, Uttara Kannada, Karward upholding the aforesaid mutation entry, as well as the order dated 22.03.2007 passed by the Single Judge in Writ Petition No. 12482 of 2006 dismissing the respondents’ writ petition for quashing of the mutation entry.

2. The brief facts leading to this appeal are as under:

The Respondent Nos. 1(a) to (e) in the present appeal claim that one late Baba Bommayya Bhat was the archak of the appellant Ganapathi Dev temple and he was in actual possession and enjoyment of agricultural land bearing Survey No. 68/2001 to the extent of 4 guntas (mentioned in some of the records as 3 guntas) (hereinafter ‘suit property’) situa