- (1.) THIS is an appeal against a judgment and decree dated August 12, 1938, of the Additional Civil Judge of Agra, in a suit for declaration of title to certain movable and immovable property. The plaintiff, hereafter called the Sabha, is the administrative council of one section of the followers of Radha Swami faith, hereafter called the Dayal Bagh Satsangis and it has been registered as a charitable society under the Societies Registration Act (XXI of 1860). For many years the president of the Sabha and the spiritual head of the Dayal Bagh Satsangis was a person of great ability whose real name was Sir Anand Swarup but who was called by his followers and was popularly known as Sahebji Maharaj. Under his guidance and as a result of contribution made by his followers a religious colony was established in the suburbs of the city of Agra which is popularly known as Dayal Bagh, and there came into existence in its colony for the benefit of Satsangis, model houses, educational institutions, model industries, workshops, a hospital, a dairy and an agricultural farm. The colony now occupies about 3,500 acres of land covered with costly buildings and it holds assets valued at about 60 lakhs of rupees.
(2.) THE Income-tax Officer of Agra treating all the contributions made by the Dayal Bagh Satsangis and all the property which had grown out of these contributions as also all the income which arose out of such properties as the personal property of Sahebji Maharaj started proceedings against him personally for assessment to income-tax. As a result, this action was raised by the plaintiff against the Secretary of State for India in Council as the defendant No. 1 and Sahebji Maharaj as the defendant No. 2 which was continued after the death of the latter against his widow and two sons as the defendants 2 to 4 for a declaration "that all the offerings, all the properties, movable and immovable, and Government securities in the name of the plaintiff Sabha and all business run by the plaintiff under the name and style of Model Industries, Tanneries, Brickfields, Construction Department, the Dairy Farm and the Agricultural Farm known as R. E. I. Dairy, and the educational institutions known respectively as Radha Swami Educational Institute, Prem Vidyalaya, and Technical College, together with all their buildings, boarding houses etc. attached to them, Dayal Bagh Press and Saran Ashram Hospital, and all the income from the above property, in ?) and vesting in the Sabha are the properties and income vesting in the plaintiff Sabha to which his Holiness Sahebji Maharaj Sir Anand Swarup, Kt., or his widow and sons after him have had no right or title." Sahebji Maharaj and after his death took place on June 24, 1937, during the pendency of this suit, his widow and two sons accepted the Sabhas claim, but the Secretary of State for India in Council resisted the claim on various pleas of law and facts; these pleas, however, were all overruled by the Civil Judge who granted to the plaintiff the declaration claimed. The matters which were debated before us in this appeal relate to the status of the Sabha, whether it was a genuine society or was merely a sham body acting as a dummy for Sahebji Maharaj and whether, having regard to its constitution and bye-laws, it could be validly registered as a charitable society under Act No. XXI of 1860; they relate to the question whether the offerings which were made by the Dayal Bagh Satsangis to Sahebji Maharaj and the property which had grown out of them and which at all material time had stood in the name of the Sabha vested in the Sabha for the benefit of Satsangis and Sahebji Maharaj had no legal title to it and the beneficial or personal interest in it or them, or whether the Sabha held those offerings or property as a mere benamidar and had no legal title to it and the beneficial title to it was vested in Sahebji Maharaj; and lastly they relate to the question whether the action of the Income-tax Officer of Agra in treating the disputed property as owned by Sahebji Maharaj and in starting proceedings of assessment against him furnishes any cause of action to the plaintiff against the defendant No. 1.
(3.) BEFORE we approach these matters in controversy it is necessary to narrate, however, briefly a few facts relating to the tenets of this religious faith and its early history, the circumstances in which the plaintiff Sabha came into existence, the position which Sahebji Maharaj occupied in relation to the Sabha and in relation to the followers of this faith, to Sahebji Maharaj personally and to the Sabha. The Radha Swami faith was founded in the year 1861 by Shiv Dayal Singh, a Khattri resident of Agra. Radha Swami Dayal after whom the faith is named is the name given to the deity by the followers of this faith. The deity, according to the tenets of this faith, is represented on this earth by a human being who is called the Sant Satguru. Human spirit, according to this faith, is tied up to the material world by chains of mind and matter, and it cannot secure emancipation and unity with god, which is the object of all human endeavour, without the assistance of Gods representative on earth, namely the Sant Satguru. In order to attain this unity the service and devotion of human being to the Sant Satguru is essential and this devotion is enjoined by this faith to be absolute in body, mind and riches. A follower of this faith has to be initiated into certain practices by the Sant Satguru and is enjoined to keep his company as much as possible, and this association is called Sat Sang and the follower of the faith is called Satsangi. These are some of the essentials of the Radha Swami faith upon which there is general agreement; but these is a divergence of opinion on the question whether the Sant Satguru is an incarnations of God or he is only human being in communion with God, or he is merely recipient, in the language of the theology of this sect, of the Divine Current; and there is also some uncertainty on the question as when one Satguru, to use again the language of the theology of this faith, departs from the world and another Satguru takes his place, how the discovery of the new Satguru is to be made.;