JUDGMENT:- A Division Bench of this Court (Coram Smt. Ranjana Desai and Abhay S. Oka, JJ.) found that there was a divergence of opinion between two Division Benches of this Court as regards powers of Charity Commissioner under section 36( 1) of The Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act of 1950). Therefore, a direction was issued to place the papers of these petitions before the Honorable the Chief Justice for passing appropriate direction in accordance with Rule 28 of the High Court, (O.S.) Rules for making a reference to larger Bench. The questions formulated by the Division Bench for a decision by a larger Bench read thus:

i) Whether the power vesting in the Charity Commissioner under section 36 of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 is confined to grant or refusal of sanction to a particular sale transaction which the trustees propose to make or it extends to compelling trustees to sell or transfer the property to another party who participates in the proceedings under section 36 and gives his offer?

ii) Whether the party who comes forward to submit his offer directly before the Charity Commissioner in a pending application under section 36 of the

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