Untwali, J. - These four criminal appeals filed by the complainant namely, Bihar State Religious Trust Board, on grant of special leave under Section 417 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure have been heard together, as common questions of law and facts are involved in them. They are all being disposed of by this Judgment.

2. The State Board of Religious Trust, Bihar, (hereinafter, for the sake of brevity, called the Board) launched prosecutions in these four cases against the trustees of some charitable and religious trusts under Section 67 of Bihar Hindu Religious Trust Act, 1950 (Bihar Act I of 1951), hereinafter called the Act, alleging that they have failed to comply, in certain cases, with the provisions of Sub section (1) of Section 59 and in others with those of Sub-section (1) of Section 60 of the Act. Inter alia, the main plea raised in defence by the accused in all the four cases was that the trusts in question were not religious trusts within the meaning of Clause (1) of Section 2 of the Act. They are private trusts and the properties of the trustees appertaining to them are the private properties of the trustees, viz, the mahant or the shebait or the manager, w