JUDGMENT: There is, in the City of Bombay, a Public Trust established and administered in the name of Institute: Indo-Portuguese. This institution is a juridical body created in the City under the Legislative Diploma No. 1066 dated 31-8-1939, issued by the Governor-General of Portuguese India in the exercise of the powers conferred upon him by Arts. 28 and 30 of the Colonial Act and by Art. 43 of the Ordinance of the Portuguese Colonial Empire. The object for which this institute appears to have been created is "to give assistance and protection to the Indo-Portuguese emigrants, who are residents in British India, by inciting them to a patriotic ideal, civic conscience and feeling of national solidarity". Under the Legislative Diploma aforesaid, the institution is to be managed by a Managing Committee consisting of a President and four members, who are to be appointed every three years by the Governor-General from among the Portuguese citizens residing in this City. It is also stated that the committee of the management, which is to be appointed by the Governor-General, is to select from among its own members one member who will serve as Secretary. By Art. 7 of the said Diploma, it is stated that all the receipts and the funds of the institute shall be deposited in the National City Bank of New York, Bombay, and their withdrawals shall be made by means of cheques signed by the President and also by the Secretary of the Managing Committee.

(2) It may be noted that this institute was registered as a public trust under the provisions of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950. It appears that, at the time when it was so registered, the Managing Committee consisted of four members, who were Sergio DSouza, Prince Lobo, T. V. Mascarenhas and J. Boadita, and the President was one B. G. Fonseca. After the institution was registered under the provisions of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, the names of the aforesaid four members of the Managing Committee and that of the President were entered in the register kept under S. 17 of the Bombay Public Trusts Act.

(3) Sometime in June 1955, J. Boadita was deported out of India under the Foreigners Act, 1946 by reason of his pro-Portuguese political activities. Thereafter, Mr. Fonseca, the President, gave a change report on 28-1-1956, stating that Mr. Leo Lawrence had been appointed member, and therefore his name be entered as such member in place of J. Boadita in the register maintained by the Charity Commissioner under S. 17 of the Bombay Public Trusts Act. The Deputy Charity Commissioner accepted the change suggested by the President Fonseca, and entered the name of Mr. Leo Lawrence in place of J. Boadita. Sometime in August or September 1956 the President Fonseca was himself deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946. Mr. Leo Lawrence, whose name, as I have already mentioned above, had been entered in the records of the Charity Commissioner as a member in place of J. Boadita, claimed that he was a member having been duly appointed, and after Fonseca was deported in September 1956, he was appointed President of the Institute on 5-9-1956.

(4) Plaintiffs, as the Portuguese citizens residing in India and as persons interested in the aforesaid public trust, have filed suit No. 604 of 1957 with the consent of the Charity Commissioner under S. 51 of the Bombay Public Trusts Act against Serigio DSouza, Prince Lobo, T. V. Mascarenhas and Leo Lawrence, who are impleaded as Defendants Nos. 2 to 5 in the suit. Defendant No. 6 is the Charity Commissioner, who has also been made a party to the suit. The charity itself has been made party Defendant No. 1, in the suit. It is the contention of the Plaintiffs that there have been disputes and dissensions between Defendants Nos. 2 and 3 on the one hand and Defendants Nos. 4 and 5 on the other, and the result of such disputes and dissensions has been that the first defendant Institute has not at all been able to function itself and carry on the objects of the trust for whic

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