Sencottai Swami Mela Arasalwar Trust is a Religious Institution.

JUDGMENT: Plaintiff is the appellant.

2. The case of the plaintiff briefly is as follows: The plaintiff is a trust known as Sri Swami Mela Arasalwar Trust at Shencottah. It has been in existence from time immemorial. The trust is situate at Shencottah which was formerly a part of the State of Travancore. The trust was established by savings out of grant made by one of the Maharajas of Travancore to a sect of brahmins who by virtue of the said grant became settled in the three streets in Shencottah now called Perumal Sannadhi Street, Arasalwar Street and Vadakku Madam Street. The trust which is founded by savings out of the grant to the Brahmin communities who formed a sect by themselves was managed by the brahmins themselves by agreement among themselves originally. In 1936. there were about 38 members in the three gramams/streets who were in the management of the trust and its properties and used to administer the trust through a general body of the said members wherein resolutions were passed on majority of the members present and voting. Subsequently when a dispute arose with regard to the management of the trust among themselves, the petitioners sought the guidance of the Government of Highness the Maharajas of Travancore who through the then Chief Secretary to the Government directed the Superintendent for a limited period of five years to guide the management of the trust. The superintendent also subsequently ceased and after integration of Shencottah into the present Tamil Nadu, the second defendant herein has passed specific order to the effect that there shall be no superintendence for the management of the trust by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board. The trust consists of a building which is locally known as chatram which is a place where refreshments were used to be given. The establishment of chatram was made by the brahmian grantees of Maharaja for the purpose of feeding way farers and travellers who resorted to Shencottah and put upon in the village. The chatram was established by the Brahmin grantees out of the income of the properties granted to them. Among the brahmin communities the samaradhanai was used to be held mainly on Dwadesi days and the poor Brahmins among the grantees were fed. On occasions of such Samardhanais of feasting there used to be invocation of particular duties as grave before feasting started. For this purpose of invocation the then trustees chose to instal niches for Vinayagar Gopalakrishnaswami and Sastha near the Chatram itself. These installations were nothing to do with the establishment of chatram. None has any endowment in their names. The chatram building belongs to the trust. The trust is a limited denominational trust of the original brahmin grantees The properties were originally granted to them and from the income of the properties they established the chatram. The trust is not a Math. The trust is a chatram building and not a temple. It is not a place of Public worship and no member of the general public is allowed to access or worship in the building. The building and the entry were controlled at all material times by the Brahmin grantees. The places were never dedicated to the Hindu community as such or any section or for the benefit of any such community as a temple. The feeding at Chatram building is not for a specific service or charity in a math or temple nor is there any performance of religious charity. There are no hundiyals, collection of any donation nor any of the deities taken out in procession. Idols were later installed after the Chatram had been in existence and the feeding is in vogue. As the savings from the properties belonging to the trust increased, the trust diversified its objects by feeding the poor brahmins among themselves within chatram building. Three deities of Sastha Vinayagar and Gopalakrishnaswami are divided off by a poromboke passage as declared by the Government. The second defendant, the Commissioner, Hindu Religious and En

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