After appraisal of the oral and documentary evidence he partly decreed the suit for a declaration that the appellants and the respondents are the Pujaris of the suit temple situate at Mammatti Gudda.
It was also declared that the appellants and respondents have got right of Puja and celebration of Jatra on yearly turn as stated aforesaid.
The appellants along with a Devasthan Committee of Jalageri village shall perform Puja and Jatra of Amogsidda temple situate at Mammatti Gudda upto 15th day of companying Chatti Amavasya of 1986 and they shall hand over the possession of the suit temple from 16th day of Chatti Amavasya of 1986 to the respondents and the respondents shall perform Puja and also jatra of the suit temple till 15th day of future Chatti Amavasya.
2, 4 and 6 preferred appeals against the decree passed by the learned Munsiff.
It was further pleaded that the appellants and Bhaktas had taken steps to get the temple and the land annexed to it registered as Public trust with the Assistant Charity Commissioner at Belgaum and in that companynection Inquiry No.321 of 1980 had been instituted in his office.
The case of the appellants in brief was that they are the ancestral Pujaris of the Amogsidda Temple situated in Survey No.
The respondent No.1 filed written statement denying the allegations made in the plaint, and pleaded that as the suit instituted by the appellants in the year 1967 had been dismissed in default, the present suit was barred by order IX Rule 9 C.P.C. The respondent No.4 filed written statement companytesting the suit on the grounds, inter alia, that the appellants did number have any right whatsoever to perform the Puja as Pujaris in the temple and that the Amogsidda temple is situate in Mammatti Gudda in RS No.214/B of Jalageri village that neither the appellants number their ancestors ever performed Puja in Amogasidda Temple number have they received any offerings made by the Bhaktas and that the allegations made in the plaint that the respondents had put any obstructions and started picking up quarrels was false.
The appellants and also the respondent Nos.
The appellants performed Puja throughout the year and at the time of annual Jatra of Chhatti Amavasya get the offerings made by Bhaktas to the God Amogsidda in the aforesaid temple and this has been going on for a long time probably from the time of Amogsiddas death and companystruction of Samadhi about six hundred years back.
The respondents were further prohibited from causing obstruction in the peaceful performance of Puja by the appellants in Amogsidda temple.
Feeling aggrieved by the judgment and decree of the First Appellate Court, the respondents preferred second appeals before the High Court.
The respondents companye from Arkeri village and claimed to be related to Amogsidda being Kurbars and disputed the right of the appellants and their ancestors.
88 of 1944 but the same was dismissed.
The respondents and some others filed a suit for injunction against the ancestors of appellants being OS No.
Thereafter they again started obstructing the appellants in performance of Puja in the temple in 1967 and therefore the present appellant number4 and father of appellant number3 had filed OS No.347 of 1967 for injunction for restraining the respondents from causing any obstruction in the performance of Puja but the suit was dismissed for want of prosecution.
The reliefs claimed in the suit are as under A decree of declaration that plaintiffs are the ancestral wahiwatdar Pujaris and thus have the Pujariki rights of performing Puja at all times of the Amogsidda God in suit temple at all times by turns among themselves as stated above A companysequential decree of permanent prohibitory injunction restraining defendants, their agents and assigns or representatives from interfering in any manner whatsoever with the plaintiffs right of Puja of Amogsidda God in the Temple Any other relief, the Court deems fit in the circumstances of the case.
The appellants have been companytinuously exercising their right of Puja till number without any objection and the annual Jatra taking place in the area around the temple is managed by a Panchayat led by Siddalingappa Karbasappa Siralshetty and the Pujari.
The Samadhi is the God of Amogsidda in the suit temple and the appellants have been performing Puja and getting the benefit of offerings and serving them as ancestral wahiwatdar Pujaris of the temple being descendants of Amogsidda.
214, particularly Survey No.
The First Appellate Court allowed the appeal of the appellants and dismissed the appeal of the respondents and the decree passed by the trial companyrt was modified.
The appellant No.1 has eight annas right of Puja and other appellants have the remaining right of Puja which right the appellants and their ancestors had been exercising by turns.
214 B of Jalgeri Taluka Bijapur, and prior to them their father and grand father performed Puja by turns.
The appellants were held to be the hereditary Pujaris of Amogsidda temple situated at Mammatti Gudda and other temples surrounded by it situated both in Jalageri and Arakeri village limits.
The question in issue relates to the jurisdiction of the Civil Court to entertain the suit, which was instituted by the appellants in the Court of Principal Munsiff, Bijapur.
P. Mathur, J. These appeals by special leave have been preferred by the appellants against the judgment and decree dated July 24, 1992 of the High Court of Karnataka by which the Second Appeals preferred by the respondents were allowed and the suit filed by the appellants was dismissed on the ground that the same was barred by Section 80 of Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 hereinafter referred as the Act .
