BILASRAI JOHARMAL Vs. SHIVNARAYAN SARUPCHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants on 2 September, 1939, with the sanction of the Advocate-General, brought a suit on the Original Side of the High Court at Bombay under S. 92 of the Code in respect of a public charity. The charity concerned is a hospital at a town in the Jaipur State called Bagar. It was established in 1926 for providing medical relief to the poor and was called Shivnarayan Joharmal Bagar Hospital. The plaint asked that the defendants, who were five in number, should be removed from their office as trustees and that new trustees be appointed by the Court. It also asked for accounts to be taken of the defendants' management, on the footing that they had been guilty of misapplying the funds of the trust; but it is now plain that this allegation is wholly without substance and that the sole ground of complaint is that the defendants have without authority changed the name of the hospital to Shivnarayan Chiranjilal Rungta Hospital and are employing this new style both in bills, papers and labels of the hospital and on the rent notes issued in respect of the property in which the funds are invested.

(2.) The learned trial Judge, Chagla J., by his decree of 10 October 1941, removed the trustees and appointed new trustees. He directed the defendants to hand over to the new trustees the trust properties in their possession, together with all the books of account, papers, vouchers, documents, etc., relating to the hospital, but the decree contains no provision giving relief against misapplication of trust monies and no direction for accounts. On appeal Beaumont C. J. and Somjee J. set aside this decree and dismissed the suit; and from their decree dated 19 March 1942, this appeal is brought.

(3.) Defendant 1 is Shivnarayan, and Joharmal is the name of his brother. Rungta is their family name. Bilasrai, plaintiff 1, is one of the two sons of Joharmal-the other, Govindram, having been given in adoption to Shivnarayan, whose only son Chiranjilal died in 1922. Shivnarayan and his brother are natives of Jaipur and come from Bagar. Both plaintiffs are described in the cause title as "of Bagar." The history and nature of the charity is sufficiently disclosed by two deeds. The first is dated 21 April 1936, and recites that in or about 1926 Shivnarayan had set apart the sum of one lac for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a hospital at Bagar and that the sum standing to the credit of the fund with the family firm had increased to Rupees 1,42,079. It provides that Shivnarayan (defendant 1), Bilasrai Joharmal (plaintiff 1), Bholaram Hardatrai and Onkarmal Pannalal (defendants 3 and 4), together with one Brijlal Ramjidas, should be trustees. They were to apply the trust monies in establishing and maintaining "a hospital or hospitals in Bagar or elsewhere for providing free medical aid to the poor people." Clause 3 was as follows: "3. The said trust moneys, securities, investments and the properties forming part of the trusts shall be called Shivnarayan Juharmul Bagar Hospital Trust Fund and the hospital or hospitals established by the trustees out of the trust funds shall be called Shivnarayan Juharmal Bagar Hospital or Hospitals. The said trust moneys, securities, investments, etc., shall be kept in the said Shivnarayan Juharmal Bagar Hospital account." The second deed is dated 12 May 1939. It recites that Brijlal Ramjidas and the plaintiff Bilasrai Joharmal had resigned from the trusteeship, that pursuant to a decree of the High Court at Bombay dated 15 October 1937, certain immovable property in Bombay known as Chowpatty Chambers had in 1938 been acquired for the trust as an investment of its funds, and that in addition to this property the trust was possessed of Rs. 81,800 in deposit with a Calcutta firm. By the operative clauses of this deed Shivnarayan Bholaram and Onkarmal appoint as new trustees Hariram Banarsidas and Motilal Nath (defendants 2 and 3 in the present suit). This deed ends by providing: "And whereas the whole of the moneys subject to the trusts of the said deed poll deed of trust were contributed by the said Shivnarayan Sarupchand alone and the said Shivnarayan Sarupchand has requested the continuing and the new trustees that the charities created thereunder should henceforth be known by the name of 'The Shivnarayan Chiranjilal Rungta Hospital Charities' the continuing and the new trustees hereby declare that the name of the charities created by and subject to the trust of the said deed poll deed of trust shall henceforth be and be carried on in the said name of 'Shivnarayan Chirairilal Rungta Hospital Charities'." From the plaint (para. 4) it would appear that for some time the family name "Rungta" had been used instead of the word "Bagar" in the title. However that may be, the effect of the change proposed by the deed of 1939 was to remove the name of "Joharmal" from the title of the charity and to put in its place the name of "Chiranjilal," the deceased son of Shivnarayan. That this should give offence to Joharmal and his son Bilasrai was perhaps only to be expected. Shivnarayan by his written statement makes the case that when he first provided the sum of one lac to found the charity he included his brother Joharmal's name in its title because Joharmal promised to contribute to its funds equally with himself. Of this allegation, however, there is no proof; but it is clear that while Joharmal is a co-owner of the site on which a hospital in Bagar has been built, Shivnarayan is the founder of the charity and has out of his own funds endowed it with large sums. A new hospital has been built and equipped at Bagar at a cost to Shivnarayan of some four lacs, and in addition thereto three lacs have been invested by him on behalf of the trust in property in Bombay. His removal from the office of trustee is therefore a drastic measure not readily to be justified in the interests of the charity or of the poor of Bagar.