Present: Mr. Justice Wendt and Mr. Justice Grenier.

KURUKAL v. KURUKAL et al.

Hindu temple-Position of a manager-Rights of heirs of owner of land dedicated to a temple.

By the law of inheritance under the Thesawalama the plaintiff and the two defendants became entitled each to a one-third share of the land on which a temple stood. But one Parupathe Amma exercised for several years the office of manager of this temple, -

Held, that in the absence of any rule of positive law on the subject of the rights of management of Hindu temples and their temporalities, and also in the absence of any regular deed of appointment in favour of Parupathe Amma by the members of congregation of the temple in question, it was difficult to assign to Parupathe Amma the distinct legal character of a trustee as the term is understood in our law. Her true and only position was that of do facto manager during her lifetime, and she acquired no prescriptive rights. And on her death, by the Jaw of inheritance under the Thesawalamai, the plaintiff and the two defendants each became entitled to a one-third share of the land on which the temple stood, an