Somayya, J.-The main question involved in this appeal is whether the decision of the District Court under section 84 clause (2) upholding the order of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Board under section 84(1) of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, II of 1927, (hereinafter referred to as the Act) operates as res judicata in a subsequent suit by the defeated trustee. The temple in question was declared by the Endowments Board to be a non-excerpted temple on an application filed under section 84(1) of the Act. It was urged in that application that the applicant and his forefathers were hereditary trustees of the temple. This was negatived and the petition was dismissed. The applicants then filed the suit out of which the present appeal arises for a declaration that the office of trusteeship was hereditary in their family, and that they and their predecessors were the hereditary trustees of the temple. They also filed an application under section 84 (2) of the Act in the District Court of Guntur (O.P. No. 96 of 1942). In the present suit the Court held, among other things, that the plaintiffs did not prove that they were the hereditary trustees and hence this appeal.

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