SAVAILAL KESHAVLAL SHAH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ application, under Articles 226 & 227 of the Constitution of India, has been filed for quashing the Government Notification dated the 22nd May, 1969 (Annexure '11') and the letter of the even date (Annexure '12') of Respondent No. 1, terminating the appointment of the petitioner as Special Officer, with effect from the date of the notification, and appointing Respondent No. 3 as Special Officer to exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of the Third Bihar State Board of Swetamber Jain Religious Trusts and its President under the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as the Act.)

(2.) The Bihar Legislature, with a view to provide for better administration of Hindu religious trusts and for protection and preservation of the properties appertaining to such trusts, enacted the Bihar, Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950 (Bihar Act 1 of 1951). Under Section 2(e) of the Act, the expression 'Hindu' has been defined so as to include a Jain and a Budhist, but not a Sikh. Under Section 5(2) of the Act, a Board, known as the Bihar State Board of Swetamber Jain Religious Trusts, has to be constituted to discharge, in regard to Swetamber Jain Religious Trusts, the functions assigned to the Board under the various provisions of the Act. Under Section 7 of the Act, all the members of the first Board were to be appointed by the State Government of Bihar, and one of such members was to be appointed as the President of the first Board by the State Government, and the term of the office of the first Board was to be five years. The second and the subsequent Boards were to be constituted in the manner as laid down in Section 8 (2) of the Act. Under Clause (a) of that sub-section, two members have to be appointed by the State Government, under Clause (b) four have to be elected by the Registered Swetamber Jain Religious Trusts and under Clause (c) five have to be elected in the manner prescribed by Shree Singh. Section 8(4) lays down that the President of the second and all subsequent Boards have to be appointed from amongst the members nominated by the State Government under Clause (a) of Section 8(2). It may be mentioned that under Section 28 of the Act the general superintendence of all the religious trusts in the State of Bihar vests in the Board and the Board shall do all that is necessary to ensure that such trusts are properly supervised and administered and the income from such trusts is duly appropriated and applied to the objects of such trusts.

(3.) It is not disputed that after the constitution of the first Board, the second Board was constituted in the year 1958 and was superseded on the 24th October, 1962. The third Board was constituted on the 2nd April. 1964. Certain schemes prepared by the third Board, as well as the constitution of the third Board were, however, challenged in writ petitions filed in this court, which were allowed on the 29th August, 1968 (vide Labhchandra Reisurana v. State of Bihar, AIR 1969 Pat 209). A Bench of this Court held that as the election under Section 8(2) (c) was on the basis of an invalid electoral roll, the constitution of the Board was illegal and also quashed the scheme prepared by the said Board. Attention of the State Government was also drawn to the provisions contained in Clause (c) of Section 81-A of the Act, which lays down as follows:--