Shelat, J. - (1.) This appeal arises from a dispute between the appellant Board and the respondent which occurred when the Board tried to enforce the provisions of the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1 of 1951, in respect of the estate known as Kamlabari asthal consisting of a temple, buildings and lands. The respondent is the current mahant claiming direct descent from the founding mahant Gaibi Ramdasji in the line of succession from Guru to Chela. Gaibi Ramdasji was the recipient of certain lands from the then Maharaja of Darbhanga and other zamindars. From out of the income of these lands, a temple with Shri Ram Janki and Laxmanji as the presiding deities thereof and certain residential buildings were constructed. Later mahants added to these properties by acquisition from out of the income of the existing properties. The respondent-mahant resisted the Board's demand for production of accounts and other particulars and in consequence the Board took out criminal proceedings against the respondent. The respondent thereupon filed a suit of which this appeal is the outcome.
(2.) In the suit, the respondent claimed that the said as that and its properties were his personal properties, the gifts of lands having originally been made personally to the founding mahant, and thereafter, to the mahants succeeding him, and that therefore, the properties were not religious trusts as defined by Section 2 (1) of the Act. That sub-section defines a 'religious trust' to mean "any express or constructive trust created or existing for any purpose recognised by Hindu Law to be religious, pious or charitable but shall not include a trust created according to Sikh religion or purely for the benefit of the Sikh community and a private endowment created for the worship of the family idol in which the public are not interested." The Board took the stand that the asthal and the properties belonging to it were not the personal properties of the mahant or his predecessors, that the gifts to them were not personal gifts but to the asthal, that the fact that members of the public had, without any let or hindrance, been using the temple for darshan and worship, the fact that festivals were celebrated at which members of the public gave offerings, the practice of feeding of Sadhus and pilgrims all went to indicate that the asthal was a public trust in which the members of the public had an interest.
(3.) Both sides led considerable amount of evidence, both oral and documentary. The oral evidence consisted of the testimony of witnesses, some of whom deposed, on the one hand, that the members of the public had been coming to the temple without any obstruction on the part of the mahant, and some others, on the other hand, that on certain occasions some of the members of the public had actually been turned away from the temple. Witnesses also deposed to the fact of festivals having been celebrated when members of the public were allowed and placed offerings, of sadhus and pilgrims having been fed and given shelter, thus showing the user of the temple by the public and the asthral having disbursed the income of its properties towards religious and charitable purposes. Some of the witnesses examined by the Board were even prepared to depose that on occasions certain members of the public had exercised some sort of control over the mahant's management of these properties. The oral evidence, however, was not of much assistance, partly because it was interested and partly because none of the witnesses had any personal knowledge of the things which they sought to depose.;