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2013 Supreme(Mad) 1472

High Court of Judicature at Madras
R.S. RAMANATHAN, J.
Sri. Aurobindo Ashram Trust Rep by its Managing Trustee, Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry & Others
Versus
S. Ramanathan & Others
C.R.P.(PD)No.4357 of 2012 & M.P.No.1 of 2012
Decided on : 02-04-2013

Advocates Appeared:
For the Petitioners:Sriram Panachu, Senior Counsel, C.A. Diwakar, Advocate.
For the Respondents:A.L. Somayajee, Senior Counsel, Ms. Pushpa Menon, Advocate.

Headnote:Civil Procedure Code, 1908, Section 92 –Locus standi of the Plaintiff who filed a suit for removal of trustee who made derogatory remarks against Sri Aurobindo in his book- Suit was filed after the Plaintiff’s request of removal of the said trustee was rejected by the Petitioner Trustees- it was held that as the Plaintiff was himself an inmate and a disciple of Ari Aurobindo and Mother for the last 30 years and believed in their preachings and ideology, he has a locus standi for filing the suit - In order that a suit be instituted under Section 92 the following conditions must be fulfilled, a) trust must exist for public purposes of a charitable or religious nature, b) The plaint must either allege that there is a breach of trust or that the directions of the court are necessary for the administration of the trust, c) relief claimed must be one of the reliefs enumerated in Section 92 - Revision petition filed against the decision of revocation of leave which was granted with respect to filing of a suit for court’s direction to administer the Aurobindo Trust as trustee failed to take any action against the inmate who published derogatory remarks in his book- Petition is hereby dismissed and it is held that thought the relief claimed by the Plaintiff falls under the purview of S. 92 but the revocation of leave was uncalled for- Trial Court was correct in its decision to reject the application for revocation of leave.

Judgment :-

1. Defendants in O.S.No.15 of 2011 on the file of the II Additional District Judge, Pondicherry are the revision petitioners.

2. Respondents filed the suit under section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure praying for removal of the present Trustees viz., revision petitioners 2 to 6, appointing new trustees who have firm faith in the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, settling a scheme for the administration of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, for formulating a court supervised process to be instituted to look into inter alia, to take steps to ensure withdrawal of the book and to take systemic corrective steps to ensure that such blatant violation of the trust's objectives do not repeat themselves. They also filed I.A.No.474 of 2010 to seek leave of the court to institute the suit and after hearing the revision petitioners herein, an order was passed in I.A.No.474 of 2010 granting the leave and the same was challenged in C.R.P. PD No.949 of 2011 before this court and this court dismissed the revision holding that the grant of leave by filing the suit is an administrative act against which no revision will lie and also observed that the revision petitioners can file an application for revoking the leave granted in I.A.No.474 of 2010 on the basis of acceptable documents and materials. Thereafter, the suit filed by the respondents was numbered as O.S.15 of 2011 and in that suit, the revision petitioners filed I.A.No.494 of 2011 to revoke the leave and that application was dismissed and aggrieved by the same, this revision is filed.

3. Mr.Sriram Panchu, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the revision petitioners submitted that the suit was filed with the intention to vindicate the personal rights of the plaintiffs/respondents herein and no allegation of breach of trust was made in the plaint and the allegation made in the plaint would not bring the suit within the ambit of section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure and therefore, the court should not have granted leave and the leave has to be revoked. The learned Senior Counsel further elaborated his arguments that a reading of the plaint would make it clear that one Mr.Peter Heehs has published a Biography of Sri Aurobindo called "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" through Columbia University Press in the United States in May 2008 which contains deliberate and baseless distortions relating to the life of Sri Aurobindo and the author of the book without any factual basis or authenticity described Sri Aurobindo had romantic affairs with Mother involving veiled tantric sexual practices that Sri Aurobindo was a frequent liar and lied about his spiritual experiences, that Sri Aurobindo's spiritual experiences were based on sexual and schizophrenic stimuli, and that Sri Aurobindo was the initiator of the Hindu-Muslim divide and was responsible for the partition of the country. It is further alleged in the plaint that though the book was not published in India, the book was made available through internet and many people had read and were misled and formed a wrong opinion about Sri Aurobindo and the author of the book claimed that he was one of the founders of the Ashram Archives to give credibility to the remarks and foundation of the book and though this was brought to the knowledge of revision petitioners 2 to 6, no action was taken by them either to evict Mr.Peter Heehs, who was residing within the Ashram and on the other hand, the revision petitioners herein provided financial guarantee for the extension of stay of Mr. Peter Heehs and also sponsored for his stay in Indian and therefore, the revision petitioners were acting against the interest of the Trust and therefore, they must be removed and new trustees have to be appointed for the effective management of the trust. He, therefore, submitted that the main allegations made against the trustees are allowing Mr.Peter Heehs to stay inside the Ashram and no action has been taken for the ban of the book and such allegations w


















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