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By his Will, dated June 6, 1898, Durga Chorone created an absolute Debutter in favour of the said family Deity and devised and bequeathed to his executors and trustees named therein, his dwelling house with gardens and tanks appertaining thereto situated in Chandernagore, "upon Trust to stand possessed of and to hold, retain and use the premises and endowed or Debutter property for the service and worship of" his said family Deity. By that Will, he further directed that this family idol "shall be located in my said house in Chandernagore which said house and premises shall be appropriated and devoted solely and exclusively to the Thakur or Idol."

Before dealing with these contentions, it will be appropriate to have a clear idea of the concept, the legal character and incidents of Shebaitship. Property dedicated to an idol vests in it in an ideal sense only; ex- necessitas, the possession and management has to be entrusted to some human agent. Such an agent of the idol is known as Shebait in Northern India. The legal character of a Shebait cannot be defined with precision and exactitude. Broadly described, he is the human ministrant and custodian of the idol, its earthly spokesman, its authorised representative entitled to deal with all its temporal affairs and to manage its property. As regards the administration of the debutter, his position is analogous to that of a Trustee, yet, he is not precisely in the position of a Trustee in the English sense, because under Hindu Law, property absolutely dedicated to an idol, vests in the idol, and not in the Shebait. Although the debutter never vests in the Shebait, yet, peculiarly enough, almost in every case, the Shebait has a right to a part of the usufruct, the mode of enjoyment, and the amount of the usufruct depending again on usage and custom, if not devised by the founder.

Shebaitship being property, it devolves like any other species of he able property. It follows that, where the founder does not dispose of the shebaiti rights in the endowment created by him, the Shebaitship devolves on the heirs of the founder according to Hindu Law, if no usage or custom of a different nature is shown to exist [Gossamee Shree Greedharejee v. Rumanlaljee, (ibid.)] Then, there is a distinction between a public and private debutter. In a public debutter or endowment, the dedication is for the use or benefit of the public. But in a private endowment, when property is set apart for the worship of a family idol, the public are not interested. The present case is one of a private debutter. The distinction is important, because the results logically following therefrom have been given effect to by Courts, differently.

According to English Law, the beneficiaries in a private Trust, if sui juris and of one mind, have the power or authority to put an end to the trust or use the trust fund for any purpose and divest it from its original object. Whether this principle applies to a private endowment or debutter created under Hindu Law, is a question on which authorities are not agreed. In Doorganath Roy v. Ram Chunder Sen(1), it was observed that while the dedication is to a public temple, the family of the founder could not put an end to it, but "in the case of a family idol, the consensus of the whole family might give the (Debutter) estate another direction" and turn it into a secular estate.