Oral Judgment:

1. The Civil Application has been taken out in the pending First Appeal by the First and Tenth Defendants. The reliefs that have been sought are (i) the discontinuance of the joint administrators; or in the alternative (ii) the discharge of Mr. A.A. Halbe, who is one of the Joint Administrators; and

(iii) the appointment of any one among four named individuals as a Joint Administrator in place of Mr. A.A. Halbe.

2. On 26th March, 2007 the Supreme Court appointed Dr. Narendra Trivedi, Vice President of the Lilawati Hospital and Dr. K Ramamurthy, a senior consultant to be in charge of the Hospital for the day to day running of the Hospital and the Research Institute. The order of the Supreme Court was pending the disposal of a suit instituted by the Plaintiff before the City Civil Court inter alia to challenge her removal from the Board of Trustees. The order of the Supreme Court records that the disputes between the parties were liable to impede the running of the Hospital which was under the management of the Trust. The Supreme Court observed thus:

“After hearing the arguments on both sides, we find that there are serious disputes between the parties which ultimately may cause serious difficulties in the running of the hospital, which is under the management of the Trust. In view of the present circumstances, as a temporary measure, we direct that Dr. Narendra Trivedi, Vice-President of the Leelavati Hospital and Dr. K. Ramamurthy, Senior Consultant in that hospital, shall be in-charge of the hospital of the day to day running of the Hospital and Research Institute. There two Administrators will take all decisions relating to the administration of the hospital. They shall give a report to the Board of Trustees every two weeks and any directions by the Board of Trustees are to be issued to these two Administrators only in the form of resolutions and not individual instructions by any Trustee. A copy of the report of resolution shall also be furnished to the appellant and if she is in any way aggrieved by the directions issued by the Board, she would be at liberty to seek appropriate direction from the City Civil Court, Mumbai where the suit is pending.”

The two Administrators were appointed to look after the day to day running of the Hospital and the Research Institute. The Administrators were to furnish a report to the Board of Trustees. Directions by the Board of Trustees were to be issued to the two Administrators in the form of resolutions. A copy of each resolution was to be furnished to the Plaintiff and liberty was reserved to her, should she be aggrieved, to seek appropriate directions from the City Civil Court. There can be no manner of doubt from the order of 26th March, 2007 that the appointment of Administrators was for the purpose of looking after the administration of the Hospital. There was evidently a dispute in regard to the administration of the Trust. Under the terms of appointment, the Administrators were not to be concerned with the administration of the Trust. The order of the Supreme Court therefore contemplates that directions would be issued to the Administrators by the Trustees and these directions were to be in the form of a resolution of the Board of Trustees.

3. On20th August, 2007 Dr. K. Ramamurthy, one of the Joint Administrators, came to be replaced by Mr. A.A. Halbe, a Former Judge of this Court since he had expressed his inability to function as an Administrator on grounds of health. The suit was dismissed by the City Civil Court on 24th September, 2007. On 28th September, 2007 the Supreme Court issued directions to the effect that the Joint Administrators should continue for a period of ten weeks subject to any interim order or final order that may be passed in the appeal or in collateral proceedings. This order was clarified on 26th October, 2007 to the effect that these directions had been passed without prejudice to the rights of the parties and the order would