The nature of a Debuttar estate, whether public or private, is determined by factors such as the beneficiaries, the purpose of the endowment, the management and control of the estate, and the extent of public interest and participation.

( 1 ) NINE deities including Sri Sri Lakshmi Janardan thakur represented by its Advocate Receiver filed the present writ petition contending, inter alia, that by virtue of three Arpannamas dated 1880, 1899 and 1953 the members of the Nandi family of Hooghly dedicated family properties to the petitioner deities for religious and charitable purpose. After coming into force of West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 a proceeding under section 44 (2a) of the said Act was initiated and the Debuttar estate was adjudicated by Revenue Officer holding the entire estate was endowed exclusively for religious and charitable purposes. In respect of a notice dated 14th February, 1976 issued by the concerned Revenue Officer a writ petition was filed which was decided holding the properties to be absolute Debuttar. A proceeding initiated under section 57 read with sections 14t (6), 14t (8), 14m (5)and 14 M (6) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, was decided by order dated 3rd December, 2001 holding the said Debuttar estate of the petitioners to be of public nature and ceiling of land was to be fixed applying necessary law. Challenge to the said order before the Tribunal failed as a statutory appeal was available and such statutory appeal forum was availed of by preferring an appeal which^as decided by judgment and order dated May 31,2002 passed by the appellate authority confirming the order of the Revenue Officer, and the appeal was dismissed. The petitioners challenged the said order before the Tribunal in O. A. No. 2175 of 2002 which was decided by order dated January 21, 2003 and challenging the same, the present writ petition was filed.

( 2 ) HEARD Mr. P. B. Sahoo, learned counsel for the petitioners, Mr. P. R. Mondal, learned counsel for the State authorities and Mr. P. K. Giri learned counsel for the applicant in the application for addition of party, who adopted the contention of the writ petitioners.

( 3 ) THE main contention of the petitioners is of two folds : the first one being that Debuttar estate is of private nature and there were nine deities in total in favour of which the endowment was created. In support of this contention, mr. Sahoo learned Advocate relied on the findings of a learned Single Judge in an earlier writ petition bearing Civil Rule No. 4941 (W) of 1976 decided on 16th July, 1980 as also the copies of the Arpannamas giving much stress on the contents of first and second Arpannamas.

( 4 ) MR. Sahoo, further relied on the law for showing the considerations for deciding such a dispute as to whether a particular endowment is of public nature or of private nature and special reliance was made on various texts. Law was also cited as decided in the cases of Bala Shankar Maha Shankar bhattjee vs. Charity Commissioner, Gujrat reported in AIR 1995 SC 167, State of West Bengal vs. Atis Chandra Sinha reported in 2000 (10) SCC 376, and the provisions of law as contained in section 14m and section 14t. Reliance was placed on the judgment in the case of Sasanka Sekhar Maity vs. Union of india and Ors. reported in AIR 1981 SC 522.

( 5 ) MR. Mondal learned counsel appearing for the State and its authorities contended that the Arpannamas clearly showed that endowment was in favour of only one family deity, namely, Lakshmi Janardan Thakur. In support of his contention, special reference was made to the portions of the contents of the first Arpannama. It is further contended that the deeds show clearly that endowment was of public nature and the authorities came to such finding appropriately. In support of such contention for showing reasons in reaching such conclussion. Mr. Mondal relied on the judgment of the appellate authority in particular.

( 6 ) CONSIDERING the aforesaid contentions, I find that mainly two aspects required our consideration, the first of such aspects is whether endowment was made in favour of one deity or in favour of more deities than one. Copy of the first Arpannama has been