JUDGMENT - B.N. SAPRE, J.:---The main question that falls for our consideration in these two Letters Patent Appeals is whether the temple of Siddhi Vinayak situated at Old Prabhadevi Road, Dadar, Bombay, is a private temple or it is a public temple and, therefore, a public trust under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, hereinafter referred to as "the Act".

On an application of the Official Trustee, the Assistant Charity Commissioner of Bombay registered the temple as a public trust on 26th September, 1955. Deojee Kashinath Patil, the father of the present appellant Dattaram Deojee Patil, since deceased, preferred an application under section 70-A of the Act to the Charity Commissioner to revise the order of the Assistant Charity Commissioner. The Charity Commissioner, by his order dated 17th June, 1965, set aside the order of the Assistant Charity Commissioner and held that the temple does not constitute a public trust. Against that decision, the official Trustee preferred an application under section 72 of the Act in the City Civil Court at Bombay. That was Charity Application No. 16 of 1965. To this application, three individual persons joined the Official Trustee. Another simi

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