The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Hindu Religious Endowments Board had no power to appoint a Receiver for a temple, particularly in the case of excepted temples, and the specific provisions of the Act must be followed.

Pakenham Walsh, J.

1. This is an application under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Section 107 of the Government of India Act of 1908 to issue a writ of certiorari against the Hindu Religious Endowments Board and to quash the proceedings of that Board, dated 17th July, 1934. The matter concerns the Mariamman temple of Irakkankudi, Sattur Taluk, Ramnad District. It is an excepted temple according to the amended definition of Act IV of 1930. The Hindu Religious Endowments Board had suo motu started proceedings under Section 62 of Act II of 1927 which I shall hereafter call the Act to frame a scheme. The draft scheme had been submitted to the trustees and was pending at the time of the order. The Board states in the order:

whereas complaints have been received by the Board that Sri Mariamman temple of Irakkankudi, Sattur Taluk, Ramnad District is receiving income by way of Kanikkais and other offerings from the worshippers estimated to amount to thousands of rupees and that the poosaries who are in management of the temple do not bring them into account whereas the poosaries estimate the income at a very low figure and there is conflicting version with regard to the income of the temple, the Board pending final orders in the scheme proceedings in O.A. No. 160 of 1934, with a view to ascertain the correct income derived by the temple during the Adi Fridays from all sources put together, under Section 18 of Madras Act II of 1927, hereby appoints M.R. Ry. M.P. Chellaswamy Konar, Avl" trustee of Sri Venkatachalapathi Temple at Sattur as Interim Receiver of the above temple for realising the collections during the Fridays in the current month Adi.

2. Then certain instructions are issued to the Receiver, the most important of which for the purposes of these proceedings were (Para. 4) that he should or "deposit the collections in cash in a recognised bank retaining with him a sum not exceeding Rs. 100 for current expenses for which he should render proper accounts". (Para. 5) "The offerings in kind and cattle, fowls, etc., shall be disposed of in public auction on a day fixed by him and after giving due notice to the Inspector of the Board and the poosaries of the temple and the proceeds thereof shall also be deposited along with the cash collections." (Para. 6) "Jewels, vessels, etc., received as offerings will be kept separately under seal". This order was passed ex parte by the Hindu Religious Endowments Board. The poosari (the petitioner) attacks it as ultra vires on the following grounds (1) that the Board has no power to appoint a Receiver; (2) that in any case it has no power to appoint a receiver for the personal gifts which are the properties of the poosari; (Vide Sections 9, 11 and 79 of the Religious Endowments Act); (3) that in any case the ex parte order is contrary to law and natural justice and (4) that while the Board is framing a scheme under Section 63 any order passed by the President alone is not legal. Of these contentions, by far the most important is the first, because it cannot be doubted that the officer of the Board who has been appointed in the order does supercede temporarily the Poosaries who are the trustees, whether such officer be called Receiver, as the order styles him, or anything else.

3. The petition has been argued very ably and at length by both sides and I propose to deal with it primarily with reference to the Act itself which after all must be the basis of the decision. This order admittedly professes to be passed under Section 18 of the Act. Section 18 runs thus:

Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any scheme settled OJ deemed to be a scheme settled under this Act, (1) the general superintendence of all religious endowments within the territorial jurisdiction of a Boar(sic) shall vest in such Board and (2) The Board may do all things which (sic) reasonable and necessary to ensure that maths and temples are prop(sic) maintained and that all religious endowments are proper