JUDGMENT :

Narasimham, C.J. - This is an appeal from the judgment of the Subordinate Judge of Cuttack dismissing the Plaintiff's suit for a declaration that Betanda Math, of village Betanda, in Killa Madhupur is an "excepted temple" and that the Plaintiff is the hereditary Mahant of the said Math and the trustee of the Devottar properties attached to the same.

2. The suit was instituted on the 28th February, 1951 when the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act 1939 (Orissa Act IV of 1939) hereinafter referred to as the Act was in force. That Act VIII of 1954 which came into force on the 5th April 1954, but the present case will be governed by the provisions of Orissa Act IV of 1939. It is also conceded that though the Appellant has styled himself as 'Mahant' and described the institution as a 'math' it is only a temple within the meaning of the Act and that his status as claimed by him was only that of a 'hereditary trustee' of that temple, and that the title 'Mahant' was used merely by way of courtesy.

3. The following facts are admitted. The institution is situated within Killa Madhupur which was formerly an impartible estate in Cuttack district. The institution was originally founde