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that could at any time be brought to an end by those who by invitation had brought it into being. The vital importance of these identical pretensions will emerge in the sequel.
The cases so put forward were litigated at great Length and over many years, first in the court of the Additional District Judge of Akola, and on appeal before the learned Judicial Commissioner of the Central Provinces. At the trial many witnesses were called on both sides and many exhibits produced; 600 of these were put in on the plaintiffs' side alone. In the result, on the cases so made, the findings of both courts are concurrent and are expressed in judgements of great elaboration and meticulous care. Broadly, the findings are in favour of the Swetambaris. These had all along been in actual management of the temple and idol; their title and right of management had been exclusive, and they had been worshipping the image with jewels, ornaments and paintings, the male organ of the diety being covered with the waisttie and band for a period, which could not be definitely ascertained, but at any rate from 1847-48. The Digambaris had also been allowed to worship in their own way in the temple; but the witnesses of the winership of the Digambaris on the point of the ownership of the temple and its management were not believed.
As a result, however of the evidence taken, the period of association, gaurdedly dealt with by both disputants, assumed a significance more decisive than either of them had been prepared to acknowledge. It was disclosed that at the commencement of the present century, the management of the temple, although nominally in the hands of the Swetambaris, had been in fact usurped by the servants of the temple known as Polkars, who for many years had exercised independent control and had become ""Perfect masters of the situation" as the learned Trial judge expressed it. They set their employers at defiance. And, to consolidate their own position, tried to play off the Digambaris against the Swetambaris. They also maltreated and plundered the pilgrims. The two sects united to face a common enemy, and in order to deprive the Polkars of the powers they had usurped, the Digamb instance of the Swetambaris, agreed to cooperate, with the result that in May 1901, a Joint committee of equal numbers of Swetambaris and Digambaris was formed to undertake the management of all affairs, the prime mover in the arrangement on behalf of the Swetambaris having apparently been Kalyanchand Lalchand one of the present respondents.
This committee, acting on behalf of both sects, joined in instituting criminal proceedings against the Polkars, who, as a result, were reduced to the position of servants of both. It was clearly the view of the learned
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