The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Govinda Menon, J.-These two appeals arise out of O.P.No. 27 of 1948 in the District Court of East Tanjore, which was a petition under section 84 (2) of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, to set aside the decision of the Hindu Religious Endowments Board, in O.A.No. 279 of 1946.

Sri Thiagarajaswami Devasthanam, Tiruvarur, in Tanjore district, is a famous Hindu religious institution and in the Ulthurai kattalai attached to that temple, it is common ground, that the hereditary trusteeship vested in two families, viz., the Bava family and the Vadapathimangalam family. Bava Vaithilinga Mudaliar and V.S. Thyagaraja Mudaliar were the two trustees of this kattalai, each of whom representing his own family, before the death of Vaithilinga Mudaliar on 6th April, 1943, leaving him surviving a widow a daughter, a daughter’s son and two brothers, viz., Bava G. Gopalaswami Mudaliar and Bava Panchapakesa Mudaliar. On account of disputes as to who should succeed to the hereditary trusteeship of the Ulthurai kattalai in the place of the deceased Vaithilinga Mudaliar, one of his undivided brothers Bava Gopalaswami Mudaliar, filed O.S.No. 117 of 1946 on 3rd April, 1946, in the court of the District Munsiff of Tiruvarur, praying for a decree that he is the hereditary trustee of the Ulthurai kattalai of Sri Thyagaraja-swami Temple at Tiruvarur and for possession of the said office with such further and other reliefs as were necessary. To that suit the Hindu Religious Endowments Board was impleaded as the first defendant, the Executive Officer of the Sri Thya-garayaswami Devasthanam as the second defendant, the widow of the deceased Vaithilinga Mudaliar as the third defendant and the other divided brother of the said Vaithilinga Mudaliar, Bava Panchapakesa Mudaliar, as the fourth defendant antl the co-trustee representing the Vadapathimangalam family, V.S. Thyagaraja Mudaliar as the 5th defendant. The widow, the 3rd defendant, contended that she was the lawful trustee was succeeded to the office of trusteeship on the death of her husband Vaithilinga Mudaliar. After this suit was filed, on 5th April, 1946, the Madras Act, X of 1946, which amended the Hindu Religious Endowments Act came into force whereby section 84 of the Act was changed in material respects. After the suit had been pending for over a year, the plaintiff applied to the District Munsif’s Court for permission to withdraw the suit on the ground that the necessary parties had not been impleaded in the suit and therefore the suit would fail for a technical reason. By I.A.No. 249 of 1947, the District Munsif permitted the plaintiff to withdraw the suit with liberty to file a fresh suit. On the 11th April, 1946, prior to the withdrawal of the suit, Bava Gopalaswami Mudaliar applied to the Endowments Board by O.A.No. 279 of 1946 praying that he may be declared as the hereditary trustee of the Ulthurai kattalai in succession to Bava C. Vaithilinga Mudaliar. This petition was also contested by the widow of Vaithilinga Mudaliar as well as by V.S. Thyagaraja Mudaliar who contended that Bava Vaithilinga Mudaliar was not a hereditary trustee of the kattalai and that even assuming that he was a hereditary trustee, Bava Gopalaswami Mudaliar, who was a divided brother of the deceased cannot succeed to the office in preference to Vaithilinga Mudaliar’s heirs. The Endowments Board enquired into the matter fully and passed a considered order on 24th September, 1947, holding that the petitioner Bava Gopalaswami Mudaliar has proved his case and was entitled to be declared as one of the hereditary trustees of the Ulthurai kattalai. The order of the Endowments Board, after stating the facts and circumstances which led up to the petition, concluded that as Vaithilinga had left no male issue, his next brother Gopalaswami Mudaliar, the petitioner was entitled to claim the hereditary trusteeship and in the face of the documents filed by him and the admission of

Click Here to Read the rest of this document