S. JAYACHANDRAN Vs. JUSTICE P. SHANMUGAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The issue in the Intra Court Appeals is mainly concerned with the Management of Pachaiyappa's Charitable Trust (hereinafter referred to as Trust).

(2.) A philanthropist Pachaiyappa Muthaliyar had executed a Will in the year 1794 divesting his properties to various charitable purposes. Consequent to his death, the properties and the charities were managed by the executors of the Will. As dispute arose, the matter was seized by the then Supreme Court of Madras which had passed 4 decrees, 1st on 3/2/1826, 2nd on 23/10/1832, 3rd on 30/10/1832 and 4th and final decree on 6/8/1841. By the fourth and final decree, the then Supreme Court of Madras had held that the performance of charities in the Provinces should be under the direction of the Revenue Board, as provided by Regulation VII of 1817. Thereafter, the Revenue Board had framed a scheme and also rules for better management of the properties and the charities under the Will of Trust on 28/4/1842. The said scheme was again subject matter of applications before this Court and by order dtd. 12/2/1909, 19/7/1920, 16/7/1963, 4/1/2007 and 14/8/2008 and based upon the order passed thereon, the scheme underwent certain modifications. The last modification was made by the Division Bench of this Court in Intra Court Appeal Nos.47 and 58 of 2007 dtd. 24/9/2008 and by way of an application in O.A.No.283 of 2018, an injunction was sought for restraining certain individuals from calling for and conducting elections for the offices of the Trust. The said application along with Application No.2624 of 2018 had been disposed of by a learned Judge of this Court by order dtd. 14/6/2018 by appointing an Interim Administrator.

(3.) Learned Interim Administrator had filed four detailed interim reports as to various aspects regarding the Trust. Various applications came to be filed before this Court seeking various reliefs including conducting of elections to the Trust, modifications of certain Clauses in the scheme made by the Division Bench. An application with regard to two of the Arangams viz., Anna Arangam and Amma Arangam had also been brought up by some of the members of the Trust. All these applications were taken up by a learned Judge and by order dtd. 18/12/2019 was inclined to dispose of all the applications with the following: