Offerings made to hereditary temple priest are his personal income, not joint family wealth: Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court recently held that offerings made to hereditary temple priests form part of their personal income and not joint family wealth, meaning that property bought using such income would also be personal assets and not joint family property [Rajamati v Leelavathi]..A Bench Justices R Nataraj and Tyagaraja N Inavally made the observation while dealing with a family dispute over property purchased using the earnings of a deceased Hindu priest. "If such person, in deference to the traditions in the family, endows himself in the service of the deity and devotees show obeisance to him by offering cash or in kind, then such offerings would be in recognition of the man's service and hence, should be construed as his individual income," the Court said..The Court, however, also clarified that not all offerings made by devotees at a temple accrue to the priest personally. It held that where a trust has been constituted to administer the temple, offerings made by devotees to the temple go into the trust's accounts and cannot be treated as the priest's personal income. The only offering a priest is entitled to retain for himself is what is placed directly before him, such as offerings made in the mangalarathi plate (plate a priest carries around to devotees after temple worship, on which they place personal offerings for him as he blesses them)..The case before the Court concerned a dispute over properties allegedly acquired with the income of one Kasturichand, who served as a hereditary archak (priest) at the Padmavathi Jain Mandir at Hunsi Hadgil. His daughters claimed that properties acquired in the names of Kasturichand's son and daughter-in-law were joint family assets, as Kasturichand had used family income earned through his role as a hereditary priest to purchase them.In 2005, Kasturichand's daughters filed a partition suit against their brother's widow (Kasturichand's daughter-in-law) and children (Kasturichand's grandchildren), claiming a share in such property.Kasturichand's daughters (plaintiffs) said that such land was bought by their father with income he had earned by holding the role of a hereditary archak at the Padmavathi Jain Temple. They claimed a stake in it on the ground that such income was the joint family's income. A trial court held that the plaintiffs were entitled to a one-third share in the properties that were left behind by Kasturichand, including this agricultural land. Aggrieved, Kasturichand's daughter-in-law and her children filed an appeal before the High Court..The High Court said the trial court had erred in treating the priest's earnings as joint family wealth. Offerings made by devotees to a priest in recognition of his knowledge and performance of religious rituals become the priest's personal income under Section 3 of the Hindu Gains of Learning Act, 1930, the Court held. Such donations cannot be viewed as being part of the collective income of the priest's joint family, it saidTherefore, the High Court concluded Kasturichand's daughters could not stake any claim in property purchased by him using personal earnings (including earnings from his duties as a hereditary priest) in the name of his son and daughter-in-law.However, it held that the daughters would be entitled to a one-third share in another property owned by Kasturichand at the time of his death in Nellur village.The Court added that it could not grant the plaintiffs shares on land on which the Padmavathi Jain temple lay."As long as Goddess Padmavathi Jain Mandir exists on Sy.No.6 of Hunsi Hadgil, the plaintiffs shall not be entitled to any share in the said survey number," it said. The Court proceeded to modify the trial court's order on these terms and partly allowed the appeal..Advocate BD Hangarki appeared for Kasturichand's daughter-in-law and two granddaughters (the appellants).Advocate DP Ambekar appeared for one of Kasturichand's daughters and the legal representatives of his other deceased daughter. .[Read Order]