SupremeToday Landscape Ad
Back
Next
Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation
Listen Audio Icon Pause Audio Icon
judgment-img

1999 Supreme(Guj) 462

Gujarat High Court
Judgename :M.R.CALLA
HARGOVINDBHAI DAHYABHAI PATEL - Appellant
Versus
PRABHUDAS RAICHAND SANGHANI - Respondent
S.C.A. 7118 of 1998
Decided On : 09/10/1999

Advocates Appeared: J.T.TRIVEDI, MIHIR JOSHI

Headnote:Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 (Bom. 29 of 1950) - Secs. 37(2), 50 and 50(1) read with Rule 27 of its Rules - Permission to institute civil suit against trustees - Joint Charity Commissioner rejected permission after expiry of six months - Appeal - Gujarat Revenue Tribunal dismissed the appeal - In Special Civil Application High Court held Charity Commissioner can examine the case for its suitability to be tried by Civil Court - Judicial procedure was followed by the Charity Commissioner - Order is supported by reasons - Due and active application of mind is evident - Rejection order after six months - Petitioners are responsible - Court finds no ground to interfere.

       The litigious perseverance which has been exploited by the petitioners in the facts of this case has been rightly noticed and the Tribunal has rightly observed that the petitioners had taken recourse to many litigations against the Trustees and for every small and technical breach, the Trustees cannot be dragged to the Court of law. The Joint Charity Commissioner while passing the detailed order has given reasons as to why he was refusing to accord the consent for instituting the suit against the Trust and it has also been rightly noticed that the alternative remedy was available to the petitioners for seeking the same reliefs. In any case, it is essentially a writ in the nature of certiorari and this Court finds that the impugned orders passed by the Joint Charity Commissioner and the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal do not suffer from any error of fact or law apparent on the face of the record nor there is violation of the principles of natural justice not it can be said that any of the orders has been passed without jurisdiction or that there is lack of jurisdiction and as such, this Court does not find any ground to interfere with the impugned orders. The petitioners are not entitled to any of the reliefs claimed by them and this Special Civil Application is hereby dismissed.

       [Para 5]

M. R. CALLA, J.

( 1 ) THIS Special Civil Application has been filed against the order Annexure. A passed by the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal in Appeal No. 3 of 1997 on 28/05/1997 whereby the appeal of the present petitioners was dismissed against the order dated 26/02/1997 passed by the Joint Charity Commissioner, Vadodara in Application No. 51/7/93 and with prayer to grant permission to the petitioners for instituting Suit as per draft plaint with such modification as may be required owing to passage of time.

( 2 ) THE petitioners have come with the case that an application under Sec. 51 of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 read with Rule 27 of the Rules made thereunder was filed by the petitioners before the Joint Charity Commissioner, Vadodara seeking permission to institute Civil Suit in the Court of District Judge, at Navsari. This application was rejected by the Joint Charity Commissioner on 26/02/1997. Aggrieved from this order dated 26/02/1997, the petitioners preferred an appeal under Sec. 37 (2) of the Bombay Public Trusts Act before the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal, at Ahmedabad and the same was rejected by the Tribunal on 29/06/1998. The order passed by the Joint Charity Commissioner has been assailed on the ground that in the matter of grant of permission for institution of Suits relating to public Trusts, the function of the Joint Charity Commissioner is of administrative nature and while deciding the grant of leave for institution of Suits, the aspects to be considered are reliefs claimed in the Suit within the scope of Sec. 50 of the Act, the plaintiffs must be the persons interested in the Suit in the Trust, and that the persons desirous of filing the Suit must have a good prima good case. Mr. J. T. Trivedi, learned Counsel for the petitioners has submitted that in the present case, all these requirements were available and yet the application was rejected by the Joint Charity Commissioner and the same has been upheld by the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal whereas the concerned Charity Commissioner could not go into the actual merits of the matter. It has also been submitted that the present Trustees had created another Trust in the name of "108 Jinalai Trust" and were collecting money in the name of the said Trust, which is not registered according to the information of the petitioners.

( 3 ) WITH the averments and the prayer as above, the present Special Civil Application was preferred before this Court on 31/08/1998. On 29/09/1998, the notice returnable on 8/10/1998 was issued by this Court and on the same date, Mr. Mihir Joshi, learned Counsel had appeared on behalf of respondents nos. 1 to 14 and he waived the service of notice. An affidavit-in-reply dated 8/10/1998 was filed on behalf of the respondents nos. 1 to 14 along with large number of documents seeking to traverse the petitioners case and thereafter an affidavit-in-rejoinder dated 15th October 1998 was filed on behalf of the petitioners. The deponent of the affidavit-in-reply filed on behalf of the respondents nos. 1 to 14 has come with the case that he is a Trustee of Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram, Dhaman Trust and while defending the impugned orders it has been stated that on 26th November 1981, the Scheme for the administration of the Trust was sanctioned by the Joint Charity Commissioner, Vadodara. For becoming member of the Trust it is incumbent that the person should be a staunch believer and follower particularly of the traditions, conventions and practices of the Trust and also a hitadhikari". On 17/05/1986, the petitioners and some other persons created a parallel Trust in the name of Shrimad Rajchandra Mumukshu (Anuyai) Mandal, Dhaman with a nominal capital and the constitution of this Trust had as its object "responsibility" to see that the affairs of the respondent Trust were being conducted by the Trustees in a proper manner and also a "duty" to take over the management and affairs of the respondent Trust in the event of a "situation" necessitating suc






Click Here to Read the rest of this document

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
SupremeToday Portrait Ad
supreme today icon
logo-black

An indispensable Tool for Legal Professionals, Endorsed by Various High Court and Judicial Officers

Please visit our Training & Support
Center or Contact Us for assistance

qr

Scan Me!

India’s Legal research and Law Firm App, Download now!

For Daily Legal Updates, Join us on :

whatsapp-icon Back to top