JUDGMENT.-The property in dispute is an unenfranchised minor inam in a village called “Kurumbirai” in Chingleput District comprised in T.D. No. 1034. On the abolition of the Minor Inams under the Tamil Nadu Minor Inams (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 (XXX of 1963) the lands stood transferred to the Government and vested in them with effect from 15th February, 1965. Nobody had preferred any petition for grant of any ryotwari patta for this land as required by the rules framed under the said Act. An enquiry regarding the grant of patta was, therefore, taken up suo motu by the Settlement Tahsildar on the basis of the materials gathered by the field staff to decide whether anybody is entitled to ryotwari patta. A notice was accordingly issued to a mosque at Salavakkam Village and the notice was served on mulla Sulaiman Sahib. In the enquiry before the Settlement Tahsildar he deposed that the said land was granted for the services of mulla in the mosque at Salavakkam and the services were being rendered. He claimed patta in his name and filed a petition therefor. The karnam of the village was examined and he deposed that the suit land was a religious minor inam and granted for doing mulla service and that the income was utilised for the said service, while the kudiwaram in the land vested in the mosque. The Settlement Tahsildar in his order dated 20th November, 1967, marked as Exhibit A-1 in the present proceedings, held that it was clear from the records and from the evidence of the karnam and the entries in the registers that the suit land was granted for the services of mulla for the time being in the mosque and that the grant was to the mosque for an office of mulla to be remunerated from the income of the suit land. He also held that it was not a personal grant. He, therefore, granted patta in favour of the mosque. This order was challenged on an appeal before the Minor Inams Abolition Tribunal. Before the Tribunal, an extract from the Register of Inams was filed. According to the Tribunal the said extract showed that the land in question was “Dharmadayam” grant in favour of an individual and not in favour of any institution in which case it would have been described as “Devadayam”. As the mulla claimed that he was doing the services in the mosque, the Tribunal considered that the only course open was to order the issue of ryotwari patta in favour of mulla Sulaiman Sahib. This order was dated 30th January, 1971.

2. No further proceedings were taken thereafter by any party to the said order. It may be mentioned here that the mosque itself had been impleaded as the respondent in the appeal before the Minor Inams Abolition Tribunal. The third respondent in the appeal before the said Tribunal was shown as “the Mosque at Salavakkam by its mulla Sulaiman Sheriff”. Since the mosque in whose favour the patta had been ordered to be issued was not represented by a proper person, a notice was issued to the Wakf Board and the Wakf Board was represented by counsel before the Tribunal. The Wakf Board did not take any further proceedings against the said order of the Minor Inams Abolition Tribunal.

3. However, the plaintiffs representing the mosque filed the present suit for declaration and injunction impleading the said mulla Sulaiman Sahib and the Tamil Nadu State Wakf Board as the defendants. It was stated in the plaint that the first defendant was not a mulla doing mulla services in the mosque, that the grant of patta in his favour was erroneous, that the suit property was always in the possession and enjoyment of the mosque and that the first defendant was threatening the tenants for the purpose of getting the produce delivered to him.

4. The first defendant was the main contesting defendant in the suit. The Wakf Board, the second defendant, stated in its written statement that it was an unnecessary party and prayed that the suit may be dismissed as against it. ,The contention of the first defendant was that the lands ha

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