CHARAN SINGH Vs. DARSHAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs respondents in this appeal filed by the defendants appellants by special leave of this Court from the decision of the High Court of Judicature of Punjab and Haryana filed a suit in the year 1963 against appellant No. 1 alone (for the sake of brevity described as the appellant hereinafter in this judgment) praying for a decree for parmanent injunction against him to restrain him "from interfering with the maintaining of the Guru Granth Sahib for religious recitals in the Darbar Sahib in the Dharamsala also known as Dharamsala Dera Baba Jaimal Singh situated in village Balsarai Tehsil and District Amritsar as also restraining him from interfering with the plaintiffs and other satsangis rights of reciting the Guru Granth Sahib and holding and joining the religious congregations and Satsang in the above mentioned Gurdwara Baba Jaimal Singh."

(2.) About 70 years prior to the institution of the suit one Sant Baba Jaimal Singh used to reside end practice spiritual Sadhana at the place aforesaid. The residents of village Balsarai held him in great respect because of his high spiritual achievements and noble living. He got a Dharamsala built which came to be known as Gurdwara and according to the case of the plaintiffs Guru Granth Sahib was also installed there. The villagers gifted and dedicated 11 kanals 16 marlas of land out of village Shamilat to the Granth Sahib in the year 1897. Several persons succeeded as the Manager Trustee or Head of the Institution so established one after the other after the demise of Sant Baba Jaimal Singh - the appellant being the last one at the relevant time. The plaintiffs who filed the suit in a representative capacity on behalf of the devotees of the Gurdwara in the first instance had wanted to institute the suit after obtaining the consent of the Advocate - General of Punjab in accordance with Section 92 of the Civil Procedure Code - hereinafter referred to as the Code. But they failed to obtain the consent of the Advocate - General. Later on the plaintiffs instituted the suit endeavouring to frame it in such a manner so as to take it out of the ambit of Section 92 of the Code. The grievance of the plaintiffs in the suit has been that the appellant was committing a breach of trust by not using the Dara in general and Darbar Sahib in particular for the purpose for which the same was dedicated. He had started denying the rights of the people to the Dara and Darbar Sahib and Guru Granth Sahib asserting that allowing them to do so depend upon his sweet-will and discretion. The plaintiffs, claiming a right in the institution for the Granth Sahib made a grievance that the appellant was interfering with their right and was not discharging his duties as he ought to do m accordance with the objects of the religious institution in question. In substance the relief claimed against the appellant is to prevent him from committing any breach of the trust and to direct him to perform his duties as a Manager or Trustee of the religious institution to carry out its objects.

(3.) Several pleas were raised by the appellant in his written statement to resist the suit. Many of them were by way of preliminary objections to the maintainability of the suit. Tirlok Singh, appellant No. 2 and two others were added as defendants 2 to 4 in the suit at their instance. The Court of the Subordinate Judge, Second Class at Amritsar framed us many as 7 preliminary issues and decided most of them in favour of the plaintiffs. But the issue as to whether the suit was competent in the absence of the consent of the Advocate-General under Section 92 of the Code was decided against the plaintiffs. So the suit was dismissed. The facts that the institution was a Public Trust of a religious nature and that the suit had been filed by the plaintiffs in a representative capacity are no longer in dispute. One of the pleas taken by the appellant was that the suit was barred in view of the provisions of law contained in the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, Punjab Act No. 18 of 1961. But this plea was rejected by the Trial Court. From the dismissal of the suit plaintiffs went up in appeal. The first Appellate Court affirmed the decision of the Trial Court. They went up in a regular second appeal before the High Court. A learned Judge of the High Court dismissed the plaintiffs' appeal on the ground that their suit was hit by Section 92 of the Code. One of the plaintiffs and two of the added defendants namely defendants 3 and 4 died during the pendency of the second appeal in the High Court. Their heirs were not substituted. The appellant's plea that the appeal had abated as a whole was not accepted by the learned single Judge. He also held against him on the point of the suit being allegedly barred under Punjab Act 18 of 1961. On grant of leave under clause 10 of the Letters Patent the case was taken further - before the Letters Patent Bench. The learned Judges constituting the Bench have allowed the Letters Patent Appeal, remitted back the case to the Trial Court holding in favour of the respondents that the suit is not barred under Section 92 of the Code. The surviving two defendants have come up to this Court.