THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE BY ITS PROCURATOR PARISH PRIEST THIRU VEDAMANICKAM,BISHOP HOUSE,K. PUDUR,MADURAI Vs. R.S. SAVARIMUTHU REDDIAR,

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above Appeal Suit is directed against the judgment and decree dated 17.4.1990 rendered in O.S.No.13 of 1987 by the Court of the Subordinate Judge, Ramanathapuram.

(2.) Tracing the history of the coming into being of the above appeal suit, it comes to be known that the appellant herein had filed the suit in O.S.No.13 of 1987 before the Court below for a declaration that the amounts deposited by late Rev.Father Peter in Ramnad District Cooperative Bank in S.B. Account No.5179, in State Bank of India, Paramakudi in S.B. Account No.10/1814, in India Overseas Bank, Kilakarai in S.B. Account Nos.8767 and 8768 and in the State Bank of India, Kilakarai in S.B. Account Nosd.5433 belong to the plaintiff Trust and consequently restrain the defendants by an injunction from withdrawing the amounts standing to the said accounts, on the strength of the Succession Certificate granted in S.O.P.No.1/86 and for Mandatory Injunction directing the defendants to surrender the Succession Certificate and not to use the same and for costs.

(3.) In the plaint filed before the Court below, the plaintiff would submit that it is a registered Society under the Society's Registration Act and it maintains Churches, Seminaries, Machineries, Educational and Industrial Institutions and also controls the Parish Priests and provide maintenance etc. to the Parish Priests and that the Procurator is authorised to sue and be sued; that one Rev.Father R.S.Peter, who is hailing from a poor family, was working under the plaintiff as Priest in the Kilakarai Church and all the moneys that he collected as Priest from the devotees and from the foreigners, totaling a sum of Rs.1,46,978.09, were deposited by him in various Banks and though those amounts were deposited in his name, the entire money belongs to the plaintiff Diocese since the Priest is only collected the said monies as the trustee of the Church; that soon after the death of the said Rev.Father Peter, the defendants herein who are none other than the brothers and sisters of the said Peter, filed a Succession Original Petition No.1 of 1986 before the Court of Subordinate Judge, Ramanad praying to issue a Succession Certificate under Sec. 372 of the Indian Succession Act as though those amounts belong to them as heirs of the deceased Rev.Father Peter and on coming to know of the pendency of the said Original Petition, the plaintiff, by filing a petition, got impleaded himself as a party and objected issuance of any Succession Certificate; that the learned Subordinate Judge, by order dated 19.2.1987 while erroneously declaring that the defendants are entitled to a Succession Certificate, had also observed that the plaintiff can file a suit to establish their right and hence the suit.