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1937 Supreme(SC) 87
PRIVY COUNCIL [ON APPEAL FROM THEEAST INDIES]
LORD THANKERTON, SIR LANCELOT SANDERSON, AND LORD NORM AND (LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COURT OF SESSION.
SUNDER SINGH-MALLAH SINGH SANATAN DHARAM HIGH SCHOOL TRUST, INDAURA, THROUGH TRUSTEES - Appellant
Versus
MANAGING COMMITTEE, SUNDER SINGH-MALLAH SINGH RAJPUT HIGH SCHOOL, INDAURA, - Respondents
On appeal from the High Court at Lahore.
Decided On : December 6, 1937.
Solicitors for appellants:Francis & Harker. Solicitors for respondents: Nehra & Co.
A charitable endowment under Hindu law is created by specifying the purpose and dedicating the property, rendering it irrevocable. Additionally, certified documents of a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, serve as prima facie evidence of its valid registration.
Headnote:(A) Societies Registration Act, 1860 - Sections 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 16 and 19 - Specific Relief Act, 1 of 1877 - Section 42 - Charitable Endowments - Registration of Society - Validity of registration - Certified copies of the Rules and Regulations and Memorandum filed with the Registrar constitute prima facie evidence of the matters therein contained under Section 19 - The burden to displace this presumption lies on the party challenging the registration.
(B) Specific Relief Act, 1 of 1877 - Section 42 - Suit for declaration - Proviso precludes declaration where plaintiff omits to seek further relief - Where it is not open to the plaintiff to pray for possession against the defendant, a prayer for injunction constitutes sufficient further relief within the meaning of the proviso.
(C) Hindu Law - Charitable Endowments - Creation and Revocability - For the foundation of a charitable endowment, no writing is required; it is sufficient that the purpose be clearly specified and the property intended for the endowment be set apart as dedicated to that purpose - Once a valid endowment is created, it cannot be revoked by the donor - Evidence of divestiture may be contemporaneous, and subsequent acts or conduct of the donor cannot reinvest the property.
(D) Societies Registration Act, 1860 - Section 5 - Vesting of property - Property belonging to a registered society, if not vested in trustees, is deemed to be vested in the governing body of such society.
Facts of the case:
A founder of a school established a managing committee and registered it as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Subsequently, the founder executed a trust deed in favor of a different trust to further extend the institution. A dispute arose between the registered managing committee and the new trust regarding the right to manage the school and its properties, which included land, buildings, fixed deposits, and mortgage rights. The managing committee sought a declaration of its right to manage the school and an injunction against the trust.
Findings of Court:
The court found that the suit for declaration was maintainable as the prayer for injunction satisfied the requirements of the Specific Relief Act. The managing committee was held to be a duly registered body based on the prima facie evidence of the certified documents. The school buildings and lands were irrevocably dedicated to the school at the time of registration. The financial assets and mortgage rights were also found to have been dedicated to the school through the founder's correspondence and the terms of the mortgage deed, thereby vesting them in the managing committee.
Issues: The main issues were whether a suit for declaration was maintainable under the Specific Relief Act; whether the managing committee was a duly registered body under the Act of 1860; and whether the properties in question were irrevocably vested in the managing committee as trustees of the school.
Ratio Decidendi: The court ruled that certified copies of registration documents under the Societies Registration Act provide a legal presumption of validity. Under Hindu law, a charitable endowment is completed upon the clear specification of purpose and the dedication of property, making the transfer irrevocable and independent of the donor's subsequent conduct.
Result: Appeal dismissed.
Appeal (No. 62 of 1936) from a decree of the High Court (May 31, 1934) reversing a decree of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Kangra, at Dharamsala (December 19, 1927).
One Chaudri Mallah Singh, of Kangra, who had for some years maintained a primary school in his village, Indaura, for the education of youths of his community, desired to extend the institution, and in 1919 a committee of sixteen leading Rajputs was selected for the management of the school, and rules and regulations and a memorandum of association were drawn up and filed and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, the sixteen selected Rajputs being named as the Managing Committee (the present respondents). In 1925, desiring still further to extend the institution into a college, Chaudri Mallah Singh executed, on November 25, 1925, a deed of trust in favour of the present appellants, Sunder Singh-Mallah Singh Sanatan Dharam High School Trust, whose attempt to enter on their duties caused dissension between them and the respondent managing committee. It was thereupon agreed between the parties to leave the school and its properties in the possession of Chaudri Mallah Singh pending the result of litigation between the appellants and the respondents. A suit was in due course instituted by the respondent managing committee, through two of its members, against the appellants, through ten trustees, claiming a declaration to the effect that the plaintiff committee had the right to manage the school and to manage the property for the purposes of the school; and an injunction against interference by the appellants. The property in question con sisted of (1.) Rs.95,000 on fixed deposit in the Punjab National Bank, Lahore; (2.) War Bonds of the value of Rs.5000, also deposited with the same bank; (3.) Bonds, mortgage deeds and promissory notes, of the value of Rs. 100,000; and (4.) Lands and school buildings, etc., mentioned in a list attached to the plaint. The main questions in this appeal were whether in the circumstances a suit for a declaration lay, and whether the plaintiff managing committee was a duly registered body under the Act of 1860.
The Subordinate Judge dismissed the suit, but on appeal the High Court (Coldstream and Hilton JJ.) reversed his decision and granted a decree in the plaintiff committees favour, declaring that the properties in question were held in trust for the school, and that the committee had the right to manage the school and to manage the property for the purpose of the school.
The facts, the relevant statutory provisions, and the views of the Subordinate Judge and the High Court appear from the judgment of the Judicial Committee.
1937- Nov. 16, 18, 19. Abdul Majid and Mrs. M. J. Clark for the appellants. There are three points (a) Whether the registration of the memorandum of association was valid— that is the main point; (b) assuming that it was validly registered, whether the property vested in the plaintiff committee; and (c) whether according to Punjab customary law, or Hindu or Mahomedan law, the plaintiff committee had any right to challenge what the founder did? All the properties in question are contained in the trust deed. With regard to the validity of the registration of the memorandum of association there are, as required by the Act of 1860, seven signatures to it, but the sixth, Kharak Singh, did not in fact sign it as required by the Act he had to sign personally, and admittedly he did not do so. The next point is that the properties were never transferred to the committee. The founder never transferred anything to the committee as such; no property existed in their names, and no property vested in them at the time the body was registered. There is no evidence that any property was legally conveyed to the society. [Reference was made to s. 5 of the Indian Trusts Act (II. of 1882); Rattigans Digest of Customary Law for the Punjab, 7th ed., ch. 6, ss. 95 and 96—on the essentials of wakf, where it is said
