Court case(1925) 52 IA 245

A Calcutta Hindu family had consecrated a family idol, Thakur Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, and the worship was carried on by the descendants as shebaits in rotation (the pala system). A dispute arose when one branch wanted the idol kept permanently in its own family house while the other branch insisted that the idol be carried to their houses for their turns of worship. The High Court decided the question as if it were a matter of the shebaits' convenience and property rights. The matter went to the Privy Council.

Lord Shaw, for the Board, held that a Hindu idol is, according to long-established authority, a "juristic entity": it has a juridical status with the power of suing and being sued, and its interests are attended to by the person who has the deity in his charge and who is in law its manager, with all the powers which would in such circumstances belong to the manager of the estate of an infant heir. The idol is not a mere chattel of the shebaits, and its will and interest, expressed through the shebait, must be respected. Because both sides were interested, the Board directed that a disinterested next friend be appointed to represent the idol, and remitted the case to the High Court to frame a scheme for the worship having regard to the idol's own interests.