Civil Appeals No. 1 and 7 of 1954.. Case: Ratilal Panachand Gandhi and others Vs State of Bombay and others. Supreme Court (India)
| Case Number | Civil Appeals No. 1 and 7 of 1954. |
| Judges | Mahajan, C.J.I., B.K. Mukherjea, S.R. Das, Bose And Ghulam Hasan, JJ. |
| Issue | Constitution of India - Article 25(2) |
| Citation | AIR 1954 SC 388 |
| Judgement Date | March 18, 1954 |
| Court | Supreme Court (India) |
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Judgment B. K. Mukherjea, J. 1. These two connected appeals are directed against a common judgment of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court dated 12-9-1952, by which the learned Judges dismissed two petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution presented respectively by the appellants in the two appeals. 2. The petitioners in both the cases assailed the constitutional validity of the Act known as the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 (Act 29 of 1950) which was passed by the Bombay Legislature with a view to regulate and make better provisions for the administration of the public and religious trusts in the state of Bombay. By a notification dated 30-1-1951 the Act was brought into force on and from 1-3-1951 and its provisions were made applicable to temples, maths and all other trusts, express or constructive, for either a public, religious or charitable purpose or both. The State of Bombay figures as the first respondent in both the appeals and the second respondent is the Charity Commissioner, appointed by the first respondent under S. 3 of the impugned Act to carry out the provisions of the Act throughout the State of Bombay. In one of the appeals, namely, Appeal No. 1 of 1954, the Assistant Charity Commissioner for the region of Baroda has been impleaded as the third respondent. 3. The appellant in Appeal No. 1 of 1954 is a Swetamber Murtipujak Jain and a resident of Vejalpur in the district of Punchmahals within the State of Bombay. He is a 'vahivatdar' or manager of a Jain public temple or Derasar situated in the same village and the endowed properties appertainbing to the temple are said to be of the value of Rs. 5 lakhs. The petition, out of which this appeal arises, was filed by the appellant on 29-5-1952 before the High Court of Bombay, in its Appellate Side, against the three respondents mentioned above, praying for the issue of a writ in the nature of mandamus or direction ordering and directing the respondents to forbear from enforcing or taking any steps for the enforcement of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 or of any of its provisions and particularly the provision relating to registration of public and religious trusts managed by the appellant and payment of contributions levied in respect of the same. The grounds urged in support of the petition were that a number of provisions of the Act conflicted with the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed under Arts. 25 and 26 of the Constitution and that the contribution levied on the trust was a tax which it was beyond the competence of the State Legislature to impose. 4. A similar application under Art. 226 of the Constitution and praying for almost the identical relief was filed by the appellants in the other appeal, namely, Appeal No. 7 of 1954 before the High Court in its Original Side on 4-8-1952. The petitioners in this case purport to be the present trustees of the Parsi Punchayat Funds and Properties in Bombay registered under the Parsi Public Trusts Registration Act of 1936. These properties constitute one consolidated fund and they are administered by the trustees for the benefit of the entire Parsi community and the income is spent for specified religious and charitable purpose of a public character as indicated by the various donors. The petitioners challenged the validity of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 substantially on the grounds that they interfered with the freedom of conscience of the petitioners and with their right freely to profess, practise and propogate religion and also with their right to manage their own affairs inmatters of religion and thereby contravened the provisions of Arts. 25 and 26 of the Constitution. The levy of contribution under S. 58 of the Act was also alleged in substance and effect to be a tax on public, religious and charitable trusts, a legislation upon which it was beyond the competency of the State Legislature to enact. 5. As practically the same questions were involved in both the petitions, the learned Chief Justice of Bombay directed the transfer of the later petition from the Original Side to the Appellate Side of the High Court and both of them were heard together by a Division Bench consisting of the Chief Justice himself and Sha, J. Both the petitions were disposed of by one and the same judgment delivered on 12-9-1952 and the learned Judges rejected all the contentions put forward on behalf of the respective applicants and dismissed the petitions. The petitioners in both the cases have now come before us in appeal on the strength of certificates granted by the High Court under Art 132(1) of the Constitution. 6. To appreciate the points that have been convassed before us by the parties to these appeals, it maybe convenient to refer briefly to the scheme and silent features of the impugned Act. 7. The object of the Act, as stated in the preamble, is to regulate and make better provisions for the administration of public, religious and charitable trusts within the State of Bombay. It includes, within its scope, all public trusts created not merely for religious but for purely charitable purposes as well as and extends to people of all classes and denominations in the State. The power of superintendence and administration of public trusts is vested, under the Act, in the Charity Commissioner; who is to be appointed by the State Government in the manner laid down in Chapter 2. The State Government may also appoint such number of Deputy and Assistant Charity Commissioners as it thinks fit and these officers would be placed in charge of particular regions or particular trusts or classes of trusts as may be considered necessary. Section 9, with which Chapter 3 of the Act begins, defines what 'charitable purposes' are, and Ss. 10 and 11 lay down that a public trust shall not be void on the ground of uncertainty, nor shall it fail so far as a religious and charitable purpose is concerned, even if a non-charitable or non-religious purpose, which is included in it, cannot be given effect to. Chapter 4 provides for registration of public trusts. Section 18 marks it obligatory upon the trustee of every public trust of which the Act applies, to make an application for the registration of the trust, of which he is the trustee. In case of ommision on the part of a trustee to comply with this provision, he is debarred under S. 31 of the Act from instituting a suit to enforce any right on behalf of such trust in a court of law. Chapter 5 deals with accounts and audit. Section 32 imposes a duty upon every trustee of a public trust which has been registered under the Act, to keep regular accounts. Under S. 33 these accounts are to be audited annually in such manner as may be prescribed Section 34 prescribes it to be the duty of the auditor to prepare balance-sheets and to report all irregularities in the accounts. Section 35 lays down how trust money has to be invested, and S. 36 prohibits alienation of immovable trust property except by way of leases for specified periods, without the previous sanction of the Charity Commissioner. Section 37 authorises the Charity Commissioner and his subordinate officer to enter on and inspect or cause to be entered on and inspected any property belonging to a public trust. A proviso is added to the section laying down that in entering upon any such property, the officers making the entry shall given reasonable notice to the trustee and shall have due regard to the religious practices and usages of the trust. Among other powers and functions of the Charity Commissioner, which are detailed in Chapter 7, S. 44 enables a Charity Commissioner to be appointed to act as a trustee of a public trust by a court of competent jurisdiction or by the author of the trust. Section 47 deals with the powers of the court to appoint new trustee or trustees and under clause (3) of this section, the court, after making enquiry, may appoint the Charity Commissioner or any other person as a trustee to fill up the vacancy. Section 48 provides for the levy of administrative charges in cases where the Charity Commisioner is appointed a trustee. Section 50 appears to be a substitute for S. 92, Civil P. C. and contains provisions of almost the same character in respect to suits regarding public trusts. One of the reliefs that can be claimed in such a suit is a declaration as to what proportion of the trust property or interest therein shall be allocated to any particular object of the trust. Section 55 purports to lay down the rule of 'cy pres' in relation to the administration of religious and charitable trust; but it extends that doctrine much further than is warranted by the principles laid down by the Chancery Courts in England or recognised by judicial pronouncements in this country. Section 56 deals with the powers of the courts in relation to the application of the 'cy pres' doctrine. Section 57 provides for the establishment of a fund to be called 'The Public Trust Administration Fund' which shall vest in the Charity Commissioner and clause (2) lays down what sums shall be credited to this fund. Section 58 makes it obligatory on every public trust to pay to this fund a contribution at such time and in such manner as may be prescribed. Under the rules prescribed by the Government on this subject, the contribution has been fixed at the rate of 2 percent per annum upon the gross annual income of every public trust. Failure to pay this contribution will make the trustee liable to... |
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...as was done in cases of other government expenses. This matter was again considered in Ratllal Pana-cliand Gandhi v. State of Bombay AIR 1954 SC 388 and Sri Jagannath Ramanuj Das v. State of Orissa AIR 1954 SC 400. In both these cases, the same test was reiterated. It is only necessary to s......
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