Trustees must act in accordance with trust objectives, and failure to conduct general meetings does not prove misconduct without sufficient evidence.

ORAL JUDGMENT

(PER: THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHOK S. KINAGI)

This Regular First Appeal is filed by the appellants challenging the judgment and decree dated 28.07.2014 passed in O.S.No.1/1997 by the learned V Additional District and Sessions Judge, Belagavi.

2. For convenience, the parties are referred to, based on their rankings before the trial Court. The appellants were the plaintiffs and the respondents were the defendants.

3. Brief facts, leading rise to the filing of this regular first appeal, are as follows:

4. It is the case of the plaintiffs that there is a Public Trust by name “Shri 108 Acharyaratna Deshbhushan Digamber Jain Shantigiri Trust”, Kothali- Kuppanwadi, Taluk Chikkodi, District Belagavi (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Trust’ for short). Plaintiff No.1 is a trustee of the said Trust. Plaintiff Nos.2 to 15 are the Devotees/Beneficiaries of the above Trust, and they are vitally interested in the welfare and development of the Trust. It is contended that the objects of the Trust are religious and charitable in nature, mainly, aiming at achieving development, maintenance of the Trust properties and its funds utilizing to attain the religious and charitable objects as mentioned in Rule 5 of the Bye-laws of the Trust. Defendant Nos.1 to 9 are claiming as the trustees of the Trust have never worked either for development of the Trust or for achieving the objects of the Trust aimed to achieve, as dreamed by the found er Muni, and at no point of time, the defendants regarded nor followed or acted in accordance with the directions of the founder Muni, or as per the bye-laws of the Trust, and unauthorizedly continued as trustees of the above Trust. It is contended that the General Body Members of the Trust have to elect the Managing Trustees of the Trust once in three years, but since the inception of the Trust, no General Body Meeting has been called for to elect the Managing Trustees. Furthermore, the total number of General Body Members is now reduced to 10. Originally the General Body Members were only 13 in number, who were the first batch of Trustees, and out of them, three Trustees are dead. It is contended that defendant Nos.1 to 9, who claims to be trustees, are not maintaining the accounts of the Trust properly and regularly. Despite the repeated demands and warning given by plaintiff No.1, defendants are concocting the bogus accounts by showing a meagre amount as income of the Trust and the major income of the Trust is being misappropriated by defendant Nos.1 to 9. It is also contended that plaintiff No.1 and other devotees/disciples of founder Muni are insisting for taking action against the persons/culprits who are responsible for destruction of ‘Charan Kamal’ (Paduka) of founder Muni, defendant Nos.1 to 9 have not taken any action, which shows the guilty consciousness of defendant Nos.1 to 9. As such, they have become not only disqualified, but also acting against the interest of the Trust, its object and against the directions and advice of the founder Muni. It is contended that the acts of the defendants were exposed in a daily newspaper on 21.05.1990, and under the moral pressure of the plaintiffs and others in that regard, defendant Nos.1 to 9 have filed two change reports, one for movable and the other for immovable properties. It is contended that while doing so, the defendants withheld the Trust lands bearing R.S.Nos.264/1, 264/2 and 264/3, fixed deposits to the tune of Rs.14,00,000/- and other funds collected regularly with an oblique motive of misappropriating the same. It is contended that R.S.Nos.264/1, 264/2 and 264/3 are dispose