Ramaswami, J. - (1.) This appeal is brought, by special leave, from the judgment and decree of the Madras High Court, dated August 9, 1963 in Letters Patent Appeal No. 45 of 1962.
(2.) The suit which is the subject-matter of this appeal was filed by the Tirunagar Panchayat, hereinafter called the 'Panchayat', against the Madurai Co-operative House Construction Society (hereinafter called the 'Society') in the District Munsif's Court of Tirumangalam. The Tirunagar Colony has been formed by the Society. The Colony consists of about 300 houses and its total population exceeds 1,500. At its inception the colony was within the jurisdiction of the Tirupparankundram Panchayat. On February 21, 1955 the Tirunagar colony was excluded from Tirupparankundram Panchayat and was declared as a separate village and was constituted as a separate Panchayat known as Tirunagar Panchayat. In the formation of the colony the Society has laid out and set apart and formed public roads, parks, play grounds and other public common places. There was a change in the Board of Directors of the defendant-Society and as a consequence of this change the Society passed a resolution on July 23, 1956 cancelling its previous resolution handing over the roads, streets and scavenging arrangements to the Panchayat. The Panchayat, therefore, filed a suit-O. S. 38 of 1957, in the District Munsif's Court of Tirumangalam for an injunction restraining the Society and its servants from obstructing and interfering with its lawful exercise of statutory duties relating to the roads and streets in Tirunagar and cleaning of latrines, public and private, lighting the houses and roads and making arrangements for the civic needs of the village of Tirunagar. The Society contested the suit on the ground that the constitution of the Panchayat was illegal as the provisions of the Madras Village Panchayats Act (Madras Act X of 1950), hereinafter to be called the 'Act', had not been complied with. The Society also contended that the public cannot use the roads or streets as a matter of right, that the entire colony was a closed one and no outsider except the members of the Society had the right to enter the colony and that the parks, central oval, play grounds and open spaces were the exclusive properties of the Society. The contentions of the Society were all over-ruled by the trial Court and a permanent injunction was granted to the plaintiff-Panchayat, as prayed for. The decision of the trial Court was affirmed by the Subordinate Judge of Madurai in A. S. 92 of 1958. The Society took the matter in Second Appeal to the High Court. The appeal was partly allowed by Ramakrishnan, J. who held that the streets and roads in Tirunagar colony alone would vest in the Panchayat and that the injunction passed by the lower appellate Court should be confined only to streets and roads in the colony and should not be extended to any other place like the parks, oval para play grounds, schools, library or club and such other amenities which the Society had provided for the residents of the colony. The decision of Ramakrishnan, J., was affirmed by the High Court in Letters Patent Appeal and the injunction granted by the lower Courts was accordingly confined to roads and streets and the cleaning of public and private latrines, and the decree of the lower Courts was set aside so far as the injunction related to the parks, play grounds, bus-stand and other public places.
(3.) The question presented for determination in this appeal is whether there is a statutory vesting in the Panchayat of the parks, play grounds, schools, libraries and other public places which the Society provided for its members and whether the Panchayat is entitled to a permanent injunction restraining the Society and its servants in the manner decreed by the trial Court.;