- (1.) The brief facts necessary for the decision of the two cross appeals, L.P.A Nos. 122 and 235 of 1966, may be stated as follows :
(2.) There is a school known as Sarvanand Anglo Sanskrit Higher Secondary School (hereinafter referred to as 'the school') at Bassi Kalan, Tehsil and District Hoshiarpur. The management of this school was affiliated with the D.A.V. College, Hoshiarpur Society (hereinafter referred to as 'the plaintiff-society'), and as alleged by the plaintiff-society it was in effective management of the school for a number of years. They had a local managing committee which was, however, dissolved. In the year 1963 the management of the school was conducted by the plaintiff-society direct. It is alleged that on the 4th of July, 1963 an unruly mob assaulted the Principal of the school and belaboured Balbir Singh, the President of the plaintiff-society. Later some local residents purported to form the managing committee of the school and got the same registered. The suit, out of which the present appeals have arisen, was filed on 14th of August, 1963. The allegations made were, inter alia, as follows :- (1) That the school was founded by the plaintiff-society in the year 1915 as D.A.V. Middle School and later on was named as Sarvdanand Anglo Sanskrit Middle School, which was subsequently raised to the standard of Higher Secondary School; (2) That land was acquired by the plaintiff-society over which the building was constructed out of its own funds, and thus the school building and the site underneath were claimed to belong to the plaintiff-society; and (3) That on 4th of July the possession of the plaintiff-society was disturbed by an unruly mod which formed a managing committee of the school, and the so-called managing committee has no right whatever to manage the school. Consequently a prayer was made for a declaration that the plaintiff-society was the owner and in possession of the management of the school and the so-called managing committee had nothing to do with the school or its management, and, by way of consequential relief, a further prayer was made of permanent injunction restraining the defendant managing committee (hereinafter referred to as 'the defendant-committee'), from interfering with the plaintiff-society's possession of the management of the school.
(3.) The defendant-committee denied the allegation that the school was founded or its land was purchased or its building was constructed by the plaintiff-society. It was averred that the site of the school was acquired by the defenant-committee and building over it was constructed out of its funds, that it rightly dispensed with the services of Om Parkash Bagga, the then Principal, and that the defendant-committee was the only organisation legally entitled to own the property and manage the school. Objection was also taken to the form of the suit.;