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Tescoles
e Giad1299 Hey'eh olyma yasliidi aulaulu.
(244
શ્રી ગિરનારજી સંબંધી ભાઈબંધ પત્રકારના
અભિપ્રાય.
· JAINS IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE.
The British Government is very properly loath to interfere with the internal affairs of Native States, but occasional friendly advice is not only proper but necessary. If there is one direction more thau another in which the States err it is in the administration of Justice. We admit that grave difficulties surround those trusted with dispensing the law, and in cases affecting the State itself it is almost impossible for litigants. A particularly flagrant case has been brought to our notice. The Jain community complain that their rights in respect of thc Giruar Hill in the Junagadh State have been seriously infringed. The hill is one of the holy places of the Jains, and their right and title to the hill date back to time immemorial. There is documentary evidence dating as far back as A. D. 421. The Junagadh State has questioned this right, and the Jains have been called upon to show their right and title in the local courts. With the merits of the case we have for the moment no concern.
latter is sub judice, and we are prepared to pay the same respect to the Nawab's judicial system as would be enforced in the case of a British court. The Jains themselves make no complaint on the score that their title to the possession of the hill has been called in question; but having undertaken to establish their right before a judicial triburial they demand that the case should have a fair trial, and that pending the decision, their rights should not be infringed or their case wilfully prejudiced.
The facts laid before us indicate that there is a very small chance of a fair decision issuing from the Nawab's Court and that its actions cannot be freed from the fact that the State itself is the defendant in the case. A suit was filed in the Rajprakarni Court, on the 19th December, 1907, and at
