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the Trustees from the solicitors of Mr. Ratanchand Khimchand Motishah, and after considering it the Improvement Committee of the Trust arranged that an open space 20 feet wide should be retained between the outer wall of the Temple premises and the nearest chawls, and that the chawls next to the Temple should all be reserved for vegetarian Hindus. In August 1920 the Jain community petitioned Government in the matter, and the Improvement Trust was consulted. The Land Acquisition Committee of the Trust inspected the site and the adjoining Temple, and also interviewed the representatives of the Jain community and Mr. Ratanchand between whom a suit in res. pect of this plot of land was then pending in the High Court. This committee, in order to meet the wishes of the Jains, as far as possible, suggested that they should either build themselves, or take over from the Trust when built, the first block of 4 chawls adjoining the Temple compound, and that the Trust should build on the remaining land. This suggestion was accepted by Mr. Ratanchand, but not by the other claimants to the land.
At the end of 1920, the High Court suit was decided in favour of the Jain comunity, and since then a large amount of correspondence has passed between them Government and the Improvement Trust. Throughout this correspondence the attitude of the Jain community has been that they require the whole of land for the purpose of building chawls for them selves, and they do not consider that the row of chawls which the Trustees are prepared to allow them to build on the side nearest the Temple is sufficient either for the need of their community or to protect the sanctity of the Temple. In the course of the discussion the Jain suggested that there were other sites which would be equally good for the purposes of the Trust, but
all the other sites suggested by them were inspected by the Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat www.umaragyanbhandar.com
