- (1.) THE present first appeal has been preferred under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 against the judgment and decree dated 31.07.2009 passed by Shri Amar Singh Chauhan, the then District Judge, Lakhimpur Kheri.
(2.) IT has been pleaded that Mahant Ram Priya Das (now deceased) filed a suit for prohibitory as well as permanent injunction against respondent nos. 2 to 4 (defendant nos. 2, 6 and 8) and Narain Das Khatri, Advocate, Mahant Sita Ram Saran Das, Pandit Rudra Prasad Awasthi and Ram Krishna Mehrotra Advocates -defendant nos. 3, 4, 5 and 7 (now deceased) on the ground that there was a temple known as 'Sri Raj Gopal Mandir' situated at Ayodhya in which idol of Shri Raghubir Nath Ji is established. The temple was constructed by Mahant Gopal Das, who by means of a registered Waqf Deed dated 13.02.1889 created a trust with respect to his all properties. There were three other temples connected with temple Sri Raj Gopal Mandir, Ayodhya, namely, Muriya Mandir, Kheri, Teliyar Mandir, Kheri and Janki Jivan Mandir, Kheri.
(3.) MAHANT Gopal Das was Sarvarakar, who died on 28.07.2002, leaving behind respondent no. 1 as his legal representative and prior to his death, he appointed respondent no. 1 as Sarvarakar through a registered will dated 17.05.2001, which has not seen the light of the day. Mahant Gopal Das, who was founder of the trust and there was a provision in the trust deed that Sarvarakar of the temple during his lifetime may nominate other person as Sarvarakar and in case any Sarvarakar died without nominating his successor, "Hakim -e -Waqt" shall be empowered to nominate the successor Sarvarakar with the help of the trustees. On death of Mahant Ram Das, Mahant Ram Anuj Das, was appointed, who died on 02.01.1969 without nominating his successor, whereupon one Rudradev Prasad Awasthi, made an application for appointment of new Sarvarakar which was registered as Misc. Case No. 3 of 1969 and in pursuance to the order dated 13.01.1969 passed by the District Judge, Faizabad, Mahant Madhu Sudan Das was appointed as Sarvarakar of Raj Gopal Mandir, Ayodhya, who took over the charge of entire movable and immovable properties of the temple and was operating bank accounts as well as managing trust properties. It was further asserted that Mahant Madhu Sudan Das, who died on 18.06.1985, executed an unregistered will dated 03.02.1981 in favour of Mahant Ram Priya Das and later -on Mahant Ram Priya Das in his lifetime executed a registered Will dated 17.05.2001 in favour of respondent no. 1, nominating him to be his successor and he died on 28.07.2002. The plaintiff, who is alleged to have been nominated by last Sarvarakar, namely, Mahant Madhu Sudan Das is looking after the trust properties at Ayodhya and after sometime he came to Lakhimpur to look after the properties situated thereon on 06.07.1985, whereupon he received an information that the defendant nos. 2 to 5 have handed over the premises of Sri Raj Gopal Mandir, Ayodhya to the appellant, who had taken charge of the properties and is claiming to be the Mahant Sarvarakar with the help of defendant nos. 2 to 4 and Sant Samaj, while respondent no. 4 is also claiming himself to be Mahant Sarvarakar and successor of Mahant Madhu Sudan Das on the basis of registered will dated 17.06.1985 which resulted into the filing of the suit.;