MITTER - (1.) THE following Judgment of the court was delivered by
(2.) BOUNDED by the river Ganges on the cast, in the locality named Tripura Bhairvi of the temple studded city of Benaras there stands a math popularly known as Uttam Giri's Math, the origin of which is lost in antiquity. For well over a century this Math has been a sanctuary of a spiritual brotherhood of Nihang Dasnami Sanyasis. Claim is laid that they belong to one of the ten orders of Sanyasis founded by the chelas of the four disciples of the famous philosopher, Sankaracharya. Starting probably without any nucleus of endowed immovable property, the heads of the Math appear to have prospered enormously in matters material and temporal. Successive heads of the Math or Mahants as they were commonly known, seem to have been more keen about the acquisition of wealth and preservation of properties than about the furtherance of the spiritual benefit of the brotherhood. Gifts in the shape of endowments seldom came their way but the Mahants who uniformly pursued a money lending business also styled as a banking business in some of the documents, went on amassing wealth and property treating themselves as full owners thereof and directing their successors almost invariably nominated by their wills, to treat the property in the same way as they themselves were doing but paying scant regard to the cause of the brotherhood or the pursuit of any charitable purposes. One Mayanand Giri became the Mahant in 1904 and it is his acts and conduct which sparked off this litigation nearly forty years ago. The immediate cause of the legal proceedings was his marriage which led the plaintiff, Purushottamanand Giri, to file the suit in the court of the Subordinate Judge of Benaras claiming a declaration that by his marriage, the defendant No. 1, Mayanand Giri, had lost his right to continue as Mahant and that the plaintiff as his nearest collateral should, according to the custom of Nihang Dasnami Sanyasis, be put in occupation and possession of the Math the properties appertaining thereto. The plaintiff also challenged a number of alienations impleading no less than forty five persons as defendants and claiming that the transfers made by defendant No. 1 were invalid and not binding on the Mahant of the Math. The suit was contested not only by Mayanand Giri but also by a number of the transferees. The defences raised were many and various. The first defendant pleaded inter alia that the plaintiff was not his nearest collateral, that there did not exist a Math with the customs and usages alleged in the plaint and that all the properties scheduled in the plaint were not the subject matter of any endowment. The case of the transferees was that most of the properties were acquired by successive Mahants starting from Chaitanya Giri by the practice of a money lending business. It was said that a banking firm styled as Uttam Giri Shivdutt Giri was started by his successors and it was this business which was pursued by the Mahants that gave rise to the wealth accumulated in the Math. The common defence of all the transferee defendants who contested the suit was that Mayanand Giri was the absolute .owner of the properties alienated and that they themselves were bona fide transferees for valuable consideration and as such the transactions entered into with them by Mayanand Giri could not be challenged. The suit was dismissed as against a large number of defendants who were found to be dead at the time of its institution or because they were not properly brought on the record in place of the original defendants. The Subordinate Judge after a protracted hearing came to the conclusion that the ancient documents on the record, coupled with the other evidence, established the existence of an ancient Math, that the Mahants from the time of Gangot Gir had been carrying on a money lending business, that an ancestor of Gangot Gir by name Gomtigir had established a Math on a humble scale, that Prem Giri, a grand disciple of Gangot Gir, established another Math of his own, that Uttam Gir who succeeded Prem Gir had certainly created one and that the predecessors of the defendant, Mayanand Giri like himself had two kinds of properties, namely, Math property and personal property. According to the Subordinate Judge the nucleus from which the Math in suit originated was the personal property of Prem Gir. On the evidence he held 12 items of property mentioned in the will of Shivdutt Gir who succeeded Prem Gir and two other items of property to be endowed properties. The transfers effected by Mayanand were, according to the Subordinate Judge, beyond challenge because they related only to his personal properties.
(3.) TWO appeals were filed against the judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge, one by the plaintiff and the other by Mayanand. The Allahabad High court on appeal dismissed the suit on the view that there was no Math at all, that there was only a banking business and that the property was non- religious personal property acquired by Mayanand and his predecessors by following a banking business. A further appeal from the Allahabad High court was disposed of by this court by a judgment dated 20/12/1954. After noting in brief the conclusions of the Subordinate Judge and of the Allahabad High court, it was observed by this court that 'the short and only question therefore before us is, whether or not the existence of the math which is the foundation of the plaintiff's case has been satisfactorily made out.' This court then proceeded to examine the principal ancient documents and observed: 'All the above documents, broadly considered, indicate definitely- ,(1) the existence of a spiritual brotherhood affiliated to each other by ties of initiation and succession, (2) the existence of a mutt which is the residence of the brotherhood as well as of the gaddinashin thereof and which in specific terms has been successively provided as being inalienable, (3) the existence of certain properties at least from the date of death of Sheodat Gir which were made specifically inalienable in the hands of his successors, presumably for the use of the spiritual brotherhood, and (4) the existence of a number of items of property which in terms were dedicated for spiritual uses like Dharmashalas, feeding of ascetcis, etc. and were designated as waqf.' This court then considered the evidence of prior conduct of Mayanand Giri himself and certain admissions made by him and held 'that the case of the first defendant denying the existence of a mutt or of any properties as belonging to it is totally false.' According to this court 'it is quite clear that what is now designated as the mutt No. 42/90-D must have been in existence at least from the time of Prem Gir i.e. for over a century and that this item of property in the hands of successors of Prem Gir was subject to the condition of in- alienability, expressly provided in Premgir's Tamliknama, and impliedly so provided in the will of Sheodat Gir. Further 'notwithstanding that there is no specific deed of endowment, the fact that the particular building has been continuously used as the residence of the brotherhood, and the seat of the head thereof in succession and the fact that it has been specifically provided as being inalienable constitute sufficient evidence of dedication of this building as a mutt.' Examining the evidence further, both oral and documentary, this court was not inclined to concur with the view expressed by the High court that the evidence did not 'disclose the existence at any time of a religious institution or a monastery with any attempt at religious study or religious teaching but that it disclosed only banking or money lending business which passed on from each of its proprietors to his chosen successor.' Great stress was laid on the documents of 1828 and 1839-to be noted in detail hereafter-which did not, according to this court, indicate that the ownership given thereby to the successors was to be for their personal uses and that all the transactions disclosed by these and other documents noticed by the High court were inter se between the members of the brotherhood and not with outsiders. It was observed that 'The document of 1887 appears to us to clinch the position by specifically providing that the properties left by Sheodat Gir were not to be alienable in the hands of the successors. The inalienability impressed upon by these properties by the then head of the spiritual brotherhood can reasonably be presumed to be only for the purpose of spiritual brotherhood.' According to this court these circumstances should 'be normally treated as indicative of the religious character of the property for the use of the brotherhood.';