DEO HANUMANJI Vs. RAM GULAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order will also govern Civil Revision No. 73 of 1962.

(2.) The common question raised in these two petitions is whether on an objection being raised by the Defendant that the suit filed by the Plaintiff being on behalf of a public trust, which has not been registered under the Madhya Pradesh Public Trusts Act, 195 , cannot be heard and decided by a Court under Section 32 of the Act, the Civil Court has jurisdiction to decide the question whether the Plaintiff is a public trust within the meaning of the Act.

(3.) The material provisions of the Act are Sections 2(4), 4 to 8 and 32. Section 2(4) defines 'public trust'. Under Section 4 the registration of a public trust is compulsory and the working trustee of a trust is required to apply to the Registrar having jurisdiction for the registration of the trust. The application has to be in the prescribed form and in conformity with Sub-section (3) of Section 4. Section 5 says that on receipt of an application under Section 4 or upon an application made by any person having interest in a public trust or on his own motion the Registrar shall make an enquiry in the prescribed manner for the purpose of ascertaining whether the trust is a public trust and determining other matters mentioned in that section. Section 6 lays down that the Registrar shall record his findings with reasons therefore as to the matters mentioned in Section 5. The findings of the Registrar are then entered in the register of public trusts. Under Section 7(2), the entries made in the register are final and conclusive subject to any change recorded under any provision of the Act. Section 8 gives to any working trustee or a person having interest in a public trust or any property found to be trust property to institute a suit in a Civil Court for setting aside, or for a modification of, any finding of the Registrar under Section 6 if he is aggrieved by that finding. Sub-section (3) of Section 8 provides that on the final decision of such a suit the Registrar shall, if necessary, correct the entries made in the register in accordance with the said decision. Section 32, on which the Defendant-opponents based their objection, runs as follows-