LexaceLexace Ask the AI ›
⚖️ Ask the AI about your situation:🚗 Car Accident💼 Work / Job🏠 Housing / Eviction👪 Family / Divorce📋 Contract Dispute💰 Money Owed

RAJE ANANDRAO versus SHAMRAO AND OTHERS.

Citation: [1961] 3 S.C.R. 930 · Decided: 23-02-1961 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: P.B. GAJENDRAGADKAR · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Cited by 3 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Open in Lexace · Ask the AI about this case

Judgment (excerpt)

1961 
930 
SUPRE'>fE COURT REPORTS 
[1961] 
RAJE ANANDRAO 
v. 
SHAMRAO AND OTHERS. 
(P. B. GAJENDRAGADKAR and "!(. N. W ANCHOO, JJ.) 
Rtligious Endowmeni-Suit under s. 92, C.P.C.-Scheme pro-
viding for modification in future-Modifications, if can be made by 
application or separate suit-Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (V of 
I908). s. 92. 
The appellant was the trustee of a temple, which was an 
endowment for the public by his ancestors, and the respondents 
were its Pujaris with hereditary rights. Dissatisfaction with the 
management of the temple having arisen a suit under s. 92 of the 
Code of Civil Procedure was filed in which it was finallv decided 
that the office of the Pujaris was hereditary and they were subject 
to the control of the appellant. Some of the Pujaris were not 
parties to the suit but they were bound by the scheme framed 
therein as members of the worshipping public. Subsequently 
again trouble arose and on the report of a commissioner appointed 
to investigate the working of the temple, the District Judge 
passed an order by which he revised the scheme which was then 
in force. The Pujaris went to the High Court .in revision which 
was allowed. On appeal by special leave the main question aris-
ing for decision was how far it was open to the Court to amend a 
scheme once framed under s. 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure 
where a power to amend the scheme is reserved in the Scheme 
itself. 
Held, that in a suit under s. 92 for the settlement of a scheme 
it was open to provide in the scheme for modifying it whenever 
necessary by inserting a clause to the effect. 
A suit for the settlement of a scheme is analogous to an 
administration suit and so long as the modification in the scheme 
is for the purpose of administration, such modification can be 
made by an application under the relevant clause of the scheme 
without the necessity of a separate suit under s. 92 of the Code of 
Civil Procedure the provisions of which are not violated by such 
a procedure. 
Chandraprasad Ramprasad v. ]inabharthi Narayanabharthi 
(1931) I.LR. 55 Born. 414, Sri Swami Rangacharya v. Gangaram 
(1936) I.L.R. 58 All. 538, Umeshananda Dutta ]ha v. Sir Rava-
neswar Prasad Singh (1912) r7 C.W.N. 84r, Manadananda ]ha v. 
Tarakananda ]ha Panda A.LR. 1924 Cal. 330, Srijib Nyayatirtha v. 
Sreemant Dandy Swami J agannath Ashram A.LR. 1941 Cal. 618, 
Mahomed Waheb Hussain v. Syed Abbas Hussain A.LR. 1923 Pat. 
420 and Gangaram Go1•i11d Pashankar v. Sardar K. R. Vinchurkar 
I.LR. (1947] Born. 466, approved. 
Prayaga Doss Jee Varu v. Tirumala Anandam Pillai Purisa 
Sriranga Charylu Vam (r907) L.R. 34 I.A. 78 
anrt Sevak 
.. 
3 ~.C.R. 
SUPRE~IE COlJltT REPOHTS 
931 
Kirpashanker Daje v. Gopal Rao Manohar Tambekar (1913) 24 M.L.J. 
199, referred to. 
Veeraraghavachariar v. The Advocate-General of Madras [19281 
I.L.R. 51 Mad. 31, disapproved. 
A suit under s. 92 is a representative suit and binds not only 
the parties to the suit but all those who are interested in the 
trust. The mere fact that the Pujaris were not parties to the 
suit would not take away the jurisdiction of the District Judge to 
modify the scheme, if the modification was with respect to the 
administration of the trust and if it did not affect the private 
rights of the Pujaris. 
Crvm APPELLATE 
.JURISDICTION: 
Civil Appeal 
No. 370 of 1956. 
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and 
order dated November 25, 1955, of the former Nagpur 
High Court, in Civil Revision No. 333 of 1954. 
A. V. Viswanatha Sastri, Shankar Anand and Ganpat 
Rai, for the appellant. 
W. S. Barlingay and A. G. Ratnaparkhi, for the 
respondents. 
1961. February 23. The Judgment of the Court was 
delivered by 
Raje Anandrao 
v. 
Shamrao 
WANCHOO, J.-This is an appeal by special leave 
Wanchoo J. 
against the judgment of the Nagpur High Court. The 
brief facts necessary for present purposes are these : 
There is an ancient temple of Balaji at Deolgaon Raja 
in the Buldana District.. Before 1866 the management 
of the temple was in the hands of a family bearing the 
name of 1 ad. 
A suit was filed in 1866 with respect to 
this temple by Raje Mansingh Rao under the guardian-
ship of his mother for a declaration that the temple 
was his property. The defendants in that suit were 
certain pujaris. The suit was decreed by the first 
court but on appeal it was held that the temple was 
not the private property of the Raja but was an endow-
ment for the public founded by the ancestors of the 

Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.