The court established an ad-hoc Committee to manage the Jatra Mahotsava, ensuring fair representation and decisive authority to the Tahsildar in case of disputes.

ORAL JUDGMENT

(PER: THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE B.M.SHYAM PRASAD)

This Court must at the outset observe that the larger controversy is about who make the Committee which can oversee management of Sri Vitthal Devasthan [the Temple], at Kittur, Belagavi. This larger question may have to be considered in Misc.No.242/2023 on the file of the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Belagavi, These miscellaneous proceedings are under Section 3 and 7 of the Charitable and Religious Trust Act , 1920 and in WP No.100053/2024, a petition filed by the sixth to tenth respondents for directions to the State and its office to take control of the temple until the disposal of the aforesaid miscellaneous application.

2. This writ petition is pending from the month of January 2024, and for the annul Jatra Mahotsava that is held in the month of January 2024, the writ Court by its order dated 09.01.2024 has made certain arrangements with discretion to the jurisdictional Tahsildar to choose the persons to assist him in the conduct of this event. However, with some of the respondents in the writ petition invoking the intra-Court appellate jurisdiction in WA No.100029/2024, a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court has clarified that the jurisdictional Tahsildar will conduct the Jatra Mahotsava , but can take the assistance of “trustees of the first appellant-Trust except appellant No.2, i.e Sri Vitthal Gopalrao Pagad”, These appellants are the second and third respondents in the present appeal.

3. The traditional Jatra Mahotsava will have to be held even during the current year, and it is scheduled to be held between 12th and 14th of February, 2025. When the petition in WP No.100053/2024 is listed on 29.01.2025, the writ Court has observed that the directions by the Co-ordinate Bench in W.A. No.100029/2024 shall be applicable for the present Jatra Mahatova as well. The appellant, who is one of the members of the Committee about whose constitution there is a dispute, is aggrieved by this order.

4. Sri Shrikant T. Patil, the learned counsel for the appellant, submits that the writ Court could not have continued the same arrangements because Sri Vittal Gopalrao Pagad [the third respondent in the present proceedings who is excluded from participating in the conduct of the Jatra Mahotsava in W.A. No.100029/2024] has actively participated in the previous Jatra Mahostsav and that the Tahsildar has not filed the accounts of the Jatra. Sri Shrikanth Patil, proposes to contend that the third respondent must be excluded completely because of certain acts of misdemeanor. Sri. K.L.Patil, the learned counsel for the sixth to tenth respondent, while supporting the canvassed by Sri. Srikant T.Patil, submits that this Court must modify the arrangement providing for participation of those members whose names are found in the PTR only as is indicated by the appellants in the petition in WP No.100053/2024.

5. Sri Anoop Deshapande, the learned counsel for the second and third respondents, refutes the assertion that the third respondent has participated in the previous Jatra Mahotsava despite the orders of the Co-ordinate Bench in W.A.No.100029/2024 and that the accounts have not been filed. The learned counsel also refuses the allegations of misdemeanor by the third respondent. In fact, the learned counsel submits proposes to make elaborate submissions to contend that all the members of the Committee as stated in Misc.A.No.242/2023 must be permitted to assist the Tahsildar in the conduct of the Jatra Mahotsava and exclusion of any member would be prejudicial as all are duly selected as the members of the Committee.

6. This Court must also record that the learned counsel emphasis that the third respondent cannot be prevented from participating in the Jatra Mahotsava as a devotee. Sri. Ravindra Hadimani, the jurisdictional Tahsildar who is present, when queried states that the accounts for the previous Jatra Mahotsava is filed in the writ proceeding in the month of April 2024 and that th