S.S. SUNDAR, J.

1. Having regard to the position that several writ petitions, writ appeals, civil miscellaneous appeals involving common legal and factual issues arise for consideration, we intend to dispose of all these matters by a common order. Hence, it is necessary to record the facts and events in the following order:

(a) The temple known as Arulmigu Pandi Muneeswarar Temple, at Melamadai, Madurai Taluk was declared to be a public temple by a judgment in A.S. No. 1 of 1925 on the file of the 1st Additional Sub Court. The properties of temple were specifically held to be a grant to the temple but not service inam. The trusteeship was held by the members of a particular family and the succession to the office of pujaris was not according to law of primogeniture.

(b) In O.A. No. 459 of 1933, the then Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board decided that the temple is an excepted one (i.e. the right of succession to the offices of the Trustees of the temple is hereditary) as defined under Madras Act II of 1927. By this order the then trustee was directed to maintain proper accounts and submit the same periodically for the scrutiny of the Board and ad