Subordinate Judges in Tamil Nadu are empowered with jurisdiction under Code of Civil Procedure, in respect of suits relating to religious and charitable trusts created for public purposes.

Raising an important question of law relating to the jurisdiction of the Court to entertain a suit under Section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure (hereinafter referred to as "the Code"), the petitioner has come forward with this civil revision petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, challenging the order dated 11.12.2006, made in I.A.No.24 of 2006, in an unnumbered suit in O.S.No. of 2006, on the file of the learned Principal District Judge, Madurai.

2. Short facts relevant to decide the issues involved in this revision are as follows:-

The respondents herein claiming to be the Joint Managing Trustee and Trustee, respectively of Sakunthala Estate Trust, 24-A, Mahal 2nd Street, Madurai, have filed I.A.No.24 of 2006, before the learned Principal District Judge, Madurai under Section 92 of the Code, seeking leave of the Court to institute a suit in respect of the above public Charitable Trust for removal of the petitioner/defendant from the trusteeship and for nomination of new Trustees and for other related reliefs. The petitioner herein is the respondent in the said I.A., and the defendant in the proposed suit. He has filed a detailed counter in the said Interlocutory Application, opposing the grant of leave to file a suit against him. Having considered the facts and circumstances of the case, the learned Principal District Judge by order dated 11.12.2006, has allowed the I.A., thereby granting leave to the respondents herein to institute the above said suit against the petitioner herein. The said order is under challenge in this revision.

3. The main andthe only contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the learned Principal District Judge, Madurai, first of all, has no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and according to him, it is only the learned Principal Subordinate Judge, Madurai, who has got jurisdiction to grant such a leave to entertain a suit under Sec.92 of the Code. The said contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is resisted by the learned counsel for the respondents stating that the Principal District Court, being the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, is the Competent Court to grant such leave and to entertain the suit.

4. In view of the conflicting stands taken by the learned counsel for both sides, it has now become necessary for this Court to decide the said question whether the Principal District Court being the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction is the competent court or the learned Principal Subordinate Judge who has been empowered by the Government of Tamil Nadu by means of a notification in G.O.Ms.No.727, Home, 8th March 1960, has got the jurisdiction to grant leave and to entertain the suit.

5. At this juncture, it is essential to refer to Sec. 92 of the Code, which reads as follows:-

"92. Public charities:- (1) In the case of any alleged breach of any express or constructive trust created for public purposes of a charitable or religious nature, or where the direction of the Court is deemed necessary for the administration of any such trust, the Advocate-General, or two or more persons having an interest in the trust and having obtained the [leave of the Court] may institute a suit, whether contentious or not, in the principal Civil Court, of original jurisdiction or in any other Court empowered in that behalf by the State Government within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the subject-matter of the trust is situate to obtain a decree........"

6. At this juncture, I may refer to Sec.2(4) of the Code, which defines the term as follows:-

"district means the local limits of the jurisdiction of principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction (hereinafter called a District Court), and includes the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of a High Court."

7. A combined reading of Sec.92 and Sec.2(4) of the Code, would make it clear that the District Court has been empowered b