A writ petition is not an appropriate remedy for adjudicating a disputed question of title that requires evidence and adjudication of rights, especially when a suit is pending for the determination of the same issues.

P. D. Desal, C. J.— This is the second occasion on which the writ petition has come on for prelimidary hearing before this Court.

2. The writ petition was summarily rejected earlier by an order passed on December 29, 1986. The said order reads as follows : "The principal challenge in the petition, which was reiterated at the preliminary bearing, was that the inclusion of Mandir Damtal at Damtal, District Kangra, at Serial No. 10 of Schedule I of the Himachal Pradesh Hindu Public Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1984, is illegal, invalid and arbitrary, since the temple is neither a Charitable endowment within the meaning of section 2 (a) nor a Hindu Public religious institution within the meaning of section 2 (f) of the said Act. In view of the decision of the Supreme Court in Panipat Woollen and General Mills Co, Ltd. and another v. Union of India and others, (1986) 4 SCC 368, the principle wherein laid down must apply with equal force to the case in hand, the petitioner is relegated to the alternative remedy available to him by way of a civil suit to seek the appropriate relief. Rejected in view of the aforesaid observations”

3. The decision aforesaid was subjected to an appeal before the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution. The appeal was allowed and the judgment under appeal was set aside and the case has been remanded to be dealt with and disposed of alongwith Civil Suit No. 44 of 1984 unless "it raises a question of title which cannot be determined with out an adjudication of rights on taking of evidence". The determination of this issue upon merits is left to this Court.

4. In light of the observations made in the judgment of the Supreme Court, the question which requires fresh consideration, on merits, is whether the nature and character of the issue(s) raised and required to be decided in the instant proceeding is such that it involves a disputed question of title which depends for its determination upon taking of evidence and upon an adjudication of rights. If the answer to the question is in the affirmative, then there would be justification for summary rejection of the petition and for relegating the petitioner to the ordinary remedy of a suit.

5. A suit being Civil Suit No. 44 of 1984, The Advocate-General, Himachal Pradesh, Shimla v. Mahant Bal Dass, Mandir Damtal, and Murti Thakur Ram Gopal, Mandir Damtal, was instituted on April 4, 1984 and it is pending for trial on the original side of this Court. It is a suit under section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure and the reliefs therein prayed are to the following effect :— (a) that a decree for removing defendant No. 1 as Trustee and appointing a new Trustee in his place be passed ; (b) that a further decree vesting the management of the properties of defendant No. 2 in the name of new Trustee, particularly the compensation amount of Rs. 1,21,92,495.61 granted by virtue of award, dated September 22, 1983, be passed in favour of the plaintiff; (c) that a direction be issued in favour of the plaintiff directing defendant No. 1 to deliver possession of the properties to the new Trustee and to render the accounts of»income of property and offerings and to hand over the books of accounts for the efficient management of the temple ; (d) that a scheme may also be framed for the efficient management of the temple Mandir Damtal, and the properties attached there with including the arrangements of worship of the Deity Thakur Ram Gopal, running of the Sanskrit Pathshala and the Langar etc ; and (e) that defendant No. 1 be also permanently restrained from managing the properties of Murti Thakur Ram Gopal Temple Damtal or any other income of the trust properties,

6. The basis of the suit, briefly stated, is that a temple known as Mandir Damtal is situate at Damtal, Tehsil Nurpur, District Kangra. It was established prior to 1914. The idol of "Thakur Ram Gopal" is installed in the said temple. The temple is open to all sections of the Hind