JUDGMENT :- This is a plaintiffs' second appeal from the decree of the Temporary Civil and Sessions Judge of Mathura dismissing their suit for the ejectment of the defendant respondent and recovery of arrears of rent from him as well as damages for unauthorised use and occupation of the premises in suit. The facts are these. The plaintiff is a deity, Shri Thakur Govind Deoji Birajman, whose idol is established in a temple at Barsana in the district of Mathura. The suit was filed in the name of the deity but the plaintiff was described as under the management of Nand Ram and others who were styled as managers (Mohatiman) of the deity. They were also added in the array of plaintiffs. The defendant is one Susalli a tenant of the deity. It was alleged in the plaint that the plaintiff was the owner of a piece of land which was let out to the defendant Susalli on Rs. 2/- per month as rent; that he had not paid the arrears of rent for nearly four years; that he was guilty of causing nuisance and also fighting and abusing the shebait of the plaintiff-deity and keeping the accommodation dirty, that his tenancy had been terminated by a notice dated 17-10-1952 and he was asked to vacate the accommodation and pay the arrears of rent that in his reply to the notice he repudiated the plaintiffs title and therefore his tenancy was terminated under S. 111 (6) of the Transfer of Property Act and the present suit was filed. The defendant resisted the suit and denied that plaintiffs Nand Ram and Govind Saran were the shebaits of the deity as alleged by them or had any right to file the suit. He denied that he had been admitted to tenancy by them. He alleged that they were neither the Mohatiman nor the pujaris of the plaintiff deity but merely paid servants. According to him, the temple in which the plaintiff-deity had been established was the subsidiary of another temple in Vrindaban where the same deity was worshipped and the trustees of the Vrindaban temple were the pujaris and managers of the temple at Barsana. The defendant further alleged that his ancestors had been granted a permanent lease about 70 years ago by the trustees of Vrindaban temple and since then his family had lived on the land.

2. It may be noted that according to both parties the deity of the temple at Barsana and the Vrindaban temples is one and the same - namely, Thakur Govind Deoji Birajman. The defendant did not challenge the title of the deity to the land occupied by him, and also admitted that he was a tenant, but he denied that the plaintiffs Nand Ram and Govind Saran were the pujaris or managers of the Barsana temple, and he claimed rights under a lease obtained from the trustees of me Vrindaban temple, who according to him were also the managers of the subsidiary temple. The disputes between the parties was not with regard to the title of the deity which was admitted, but the status of the other two plaintiffs and their right to eject the defendant and recover rent from him. Both the sides led evidence. The plaintiffs produced certain entries in the revenue records in which their ancestors were described as shebaits while the defendant produced two deeds under which the plaintiffs' ancestors were, according to him, appointed by the managers of the Vrindaban temple as their paid servants to look after the temples at Barsana. The trial court held that Nandram and Govind Saran were the pujaris of the Barsana temple and competent to file a suit for the ejectment of the defendant and recovery of rent from him. It also held that the defendant was a tenant of these plaintiffs. Accordingly it decreeed the suit for ejectment and recovery of rent. On appeal the learned Civil Judge disagreed with the trial court with regard to the status of the two plaintiffs or their capacity to file the suit on behalf of the deity. He held that the Barsana Temple was managed by the trustees or managing committee of the Vrindaban temple and the defendant derived his rights as a permanent less

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