VED PRAKASH Vs. VED MATA GAYATRI TRUST

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants preferred this appeal under Section 104 of the Civil Procedure Code against the order dated 31-7-2001 passed by the District Judge, Hardwar in Civil Misc. Case No. 12 of 1999 Sri Ved Prakash v. Ved Mata Gayatri Trust, whereby the District Judge has refused to grant leave to file suit under Section 92 of the Civil Procedure Code by rejecting the application of the applicants/plaintiffs paper Nos. 4C-2 and application paper No. 82-C2.

(2.) Brief facts giving rise to this appeal are that plaintiffs filed suit with the prayer to grant leave to institute the suit under Sec. 92 of the CPC in respect of defendant No, 1 on the grounds, inter alia, that the defendant No. 1 is a Trust for public purposes of a charitable & religious nature, duly exempted even under Sec. 80-G of the Income Tax Act, 1961 having its principal activity in Shantl Kunj, Bhopatwala, Hardwar (hereinafter referred to as the Trust). That the aforesaid Trust was founded by late Smt. Bhagwati Devi Sharma wife of late (Acharya) Sri Ram Sharma in respect of which she also executed a registered instrument dated 12-11-1969. That Smt. Bhagwati Devi Sharma, founder of the Trust appointed herself as the trustee and along with her she appointed Acharya Shri Ram Sharma aforesaid and her husband, Sri Satya Deo of Mathura, Sri Uma Shanker Chaturvedi of Bilaspur (M.P.) and Sri Shiv Shanker Gupta of Delhi as the trustees. That Smt. Bhagwati Devi Sharma, the founder of the Trust also executed a declaration dated 23-1-1974 in respect of the working of the Trust and celebrated the alms and objectives for the religious purpose. That in the year 1974 Sri Satya Deo and Sri Uma Shanker Chaturvedi have resigned from trustship and in their places Sri R. S. Verma and Sri Gulzari Mal Goel were taken as trustees. That later on Sri R. S. Verma died and in his place defendant No. 4 who was working as Accountant, was taken as a trustee and on the death of Sri Shiv Shanker Gupta, defendant No. 5 Major V. K. Khare was appointed as trustee by Smt. Bhagwati Devi Sharma. That after the death of Smt. Bhagwati Devi Sharma, defendant Nos. 1 & 3 started grabbing the assets of the Trust and ignoring other trustees and other trustees were not doing anything in the matter. That lot of ornaments and gold are received in donations but nothing is accounted for in the books of the Trust. Therefore, the Trust accounts are not being maintained properly and regularly. That the defendant Nos. 2 to 8 are committing constant breaches of Trust and are not managing and administering the Trust in a proper way and it is necessary in the interest of public and in the interest of justice to grant leave to the plaintiffs to file the suit under Section 92, CPC. The plaintiffs filed application paper No. 4C-2 with the prayer that leave be granted to the applicants under Sec. 92 of the CPC to file the suit.

(3.) It reveals from the record that initially the suit with the prayer to grant leave to institute a suit was filed on behalf of five applicants but later on the applicants Nos. 3 & 5 by moving an application prayed for separating themselves from the suit which was allowed by the Court. The application paper No. 4C-2 was pressed only by three applicants/plaintiffs i.e. plaintiff Nos. 1, 2 & 4 before the lower Court. Besides the said application the plaintiffs also moved application, paper No. 82C-2, requiring the defendants to produce the accounts of the Trust for the year 1997-98 in the Court.