MAITRI CHARITABLE TRUST Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIORTER no.1 before this Court is a Charitable Trust registered under the Indian Registration Act, 1888. Petitioner no.2 is a citizen of India and one of the Trustees of the Trust. He states that he is duly authorised to file this writ petition on behalf of the trust.

(2.) THE trust was registered on 23.12.1993; it was originally established by a gentleman called Mr. Lama Thubten Zopa Sherpa who is a foreign national. Later on amendments were made in its constitution and under the amended constitution, no foreign national can be its trustee. Presently, all its four trustees are Indian citizens.

(3.) THE order of the Commissioner has come on the record as Annexure -B to the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the respondents. It is contained in a letter dated 25.9.1997 addressed from the Commissioner 's Secretary to the District Magistrate Gaya. The letter simply states, without assigning any reason, that the petitioner Trust and one other Trust by the name of Budhist Thai Bharat Society did not have the right to acquire any property in India and any permission granted to these organisations to purchase land, was 'un -constitutional '.