HARGOVINDBHAI DAHYABHAI PATEL Vs. PRABHUDAS RAICHAND SANGHANI

JUDGEMENT

(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 such interference. All the three petitioners attended the meeting at which the constitution was approved. The said constitution, without any doubt, indicates that the interest of the petitioners and that of the respondent Trust are not at all identical and in fact are absolutely at loggerheads. The petitioners could never be said to be "Hitadhikaris" and the petitioners nos.1 and 2 were also on the Managing Committee of the Trust. In furtherance of the sole objective to take over the respondent Trust, in a step, most ill suited for religious Trusts, a large group of persons under the leadership of the petitioners suddenly and without ever being interested in the respondent Trust as believers, followers or donors attempted to become members. None of the persons fulfill the criteria and parameters for becoming members under the scheme which was extensively pointed out by the respondent Trust pursuant to which Misc. Application No.6 of 1987 came to be filed by two of the representatives of the Group in November 1986 for becoming members of the Trust and this application came to be rejected by the Joint Charity Commissioner on 26th May 1987. Against this order dated 26/05/1987 passed by the Joint Charity Commissioner, Special Civil Application No.7068 of 1987 had been filed in which the interim relief was refused. Thereafter, other persons representing the same group filed Civil Suit No.58 of 1990 in the Court of Civil Judge, Senior Division, Navsari for taking all persons as members of the respondent Trust and the notice of motion was rejected by order dated 25.9.1992 and later on the order dtd.18th October 1993 was passed. In the meantime, the Application No.51/7/93 was filed in July 1993 before the Joint Charity Commissioner which was rejected on 26th February 1997 and the said order was confirmed by the Tribunal by its order dated 27/05/1997. It has been stated that the petitioners are not at all the persons interested in the Trust or its affairs as contemplated under the Act.