- (1.) -This appeal by special leave is directed against the jugdment and order of the High court of orissa in the appeal filed by Raja Bahadur S. A. N. M. H. Mohapatra, since deceased, ex-Ruler of the erstwhile State of Narasinghpur, hereinafter referred to as the original appellant, under Section 44 of the orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1951, hereinafter referred to as the Act.
(2.) The appeal to the High court arose out of the proceedings started under Section 41 of the Act at the instance of Bidyadhar Nayak, respondent before us, for a declaration that the institutions, numbering 67, were public religious endowments. The original appellant filed objections and his plea was that most of these institutions were his private institutions. In the alternative he prayed that he be declared as a 'hereditary trustee' as defined under the Act. Before the High court the appellant did not contest the findings of the Assistant Commissioner of Endowments and the Commissioner of Endowments that they were public institutions. We may mention that the learned counsel for the appellant tried to resuscitate this point but we did not allow him to raise this question.
(3.) The only question which the High court had then to deal with was whether the original appellant ought to have been declared as a hereditary trustee within the meaning of the words 'hereditary trustee' under the Act.;