Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950

The petitioner, Krishna Veer Singh Chauhan, was appointed Secretary of the Vidharbha Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti in 1982 but the respondents forcibly took control of the trust's affairs and properties. The petitioner obtained orders from the Joint Charity Commissioner and the Supreme Court directing the respondents to…

The appellants, who claim to be hereditary pujaris of the Amogsidda temple, filed a suit in the civil court seeking a declaration of their pujariki rights and an injunction against interference by the respondents. The respondents argued that the suit was barred by Section 80 of the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 because…

The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) constituted a Grievance Committee under Section 53 of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Act, 1998 to address complaints of two unapproved lecturers (the 5th and 6th respondents) alleging sexual harassment and other mistreatment. The college and the two le…

The case involved three trusts registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950, where several change notices for appointment and deletion of trustees were filed. The Assistant Charity Commissioner approved a change notice without conducting the mandatory enquiry, prompting the Joint Charity Commissioner to remand th…

The Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, a charitable society, faced a dispute over the validity of its 2002 executive elections after the President, Vice‑President, Secretary and other office‑bearers had died, leaving a Working President, Adv. Babasaheb Wasade, to manage affairs. Sixteen members requested a meeting to elect a ne…

The petitioner, a lifetime trustee of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust, alleged that respondent No.6 failed to give notice of a Board of Trustees meeting as ordered by this Court on 14 February 2014, constituting willful contempt. The Court had earlier stayed the meeting scheduled for 7 February 2014 and order…

The respondent‑plaintiff sought possession of a math (public trust) claiming to be the valid Padadayya, challenging the installation of earlier Padadayyas. An earlier proceeding before the Privy Council had held that Shivalingayya was validly nominated and installed, a decision the plaintiff was not a party to. The Sup…

The petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of conditions (i) and (ii) attached to the exemption under section 88B(1)(b) of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, which allowed lands of a trust for public religious worship to be exempt from tenancy provisions. Condition (i) required the trust t…

The Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs was incorporated on 4 January 2002 and subsequently published lists of wakf properties on 13 November 2003 and 30 December 2004. Several Muslim public trusts challenged the Board’s constitution, the validity of the lists, and the applicability of Section 13(2) of the Wakf Act, 1995,…

The plaintiff, a lease‑holder of land and superstructure since 1951, entered into a sale agreement with a charitable trust on 26 February 1980, subject to permission from the Charity Commissioner under Section 36 of the Bombay Public Trust Act. The Commissioner initially ordered the property to be sold by public auctio…

Pragati Mahila Mandal, a charitable trust, was allotted a 60‑year lease of a plot by Nanded Municipal Council to start a school for girls. Unable to fund the school, it instead operated a hostel for girls and working women on a no‑profit basis. A public‑interest writ petition filed by Anil Tryambakarao Kokil challenged…

The charitable trust Ekta Mahila Mandal constructed rooms and a playground on a 770 sq.m plot in the N‑7 sector of CIDCO, which was earmarked as a green belt under the development plan. The trust sought regularisation of the plot for a primary school, invoking Article 21A of the Constitution as a fundamental right to e…

The case concerned the termination of an assistant teacher (respondent No.1) from a private school run by a trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act. The teacher was served with a charge‑sheet of 17 serious allegations under the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Regulation Act, and an inqu…

The case concerned a slum rehabilitation project in Lower Parel, Mumbai, where a developer and a minority group of hutment dwellers (Sayunkta Sangharsh Samiti) entered into a private Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to allocate flats in towers D, E and F exclusively to the society members, bypassing the Slum Rehabilit…

The case concerned an ancient temple registered as a public trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. After trustees terminated the services of two licensees who refused to vacate temple premises, the trustees filed suits for declaration of title and possession. Earlier suits were dismissed for lack of written con…

The petitioners, trustees of a Mumbai charity, sought to sell a tenanted trust property for redevelopment under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 and Regulation 33(7) of the Development Control Regulations for Greater Mumbai, which requires at least 70% irrevocable written consent of the occupiers. The Charity Commissi…

The case concerned the removal of Ajendraprasadji Narendraprasadji Pandey from the post of Acharya of a Swaminarayan religious institution and the subsequent appointment of Rakesh Prasadji Mahendra Prasadji. The removal was based on a resolution passed by a body calling itself Satsangha Mahasabha, whose authority was c…

The appellant, a permanent trustee of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust, alleged that the other trustees and the deceased managing trustee misappropriated trust assets and were guilty of non‑feasance and mal‑feasance. An application under Section 41D of the Bombay Public Trust Act was filed before the Joint Cha…

The trustees of Shri Vyankatesh Mandir Trust sought to sell nine acres of agricultural land belonging to the trust, entering into multiple agreements with the petitioners and repeatedly applying to the Joint Charity Commissioner (JCC) for extensions of time to complete the sale. The JCC rejected both the 2003 and 2006 …

The Supreme Court examined a public‑interest writ filed by Padma challenging CIDCO's bulk sale of developable land in Aurangabad. The High Court had held that the allotments to several private entities were made without Board approval, at prices below the reserve price, and in violation of Section 115 of the Maharashtr…

The Supreme Court considered appeals arising from a suit concerning the administration of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. The trial court had struck out portions of the written statements of defendants 11‑13 and parts of the plaintiff's affidavit, and had refused an am…

The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), a government research institute under the Department of Space, retired employee K.G. Sharma at age 58, prompting him to claim a statutory retirement age of 60 under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Labour Court held that PRL was an "industry" within the meaning of Section 2…

The appellant, founder and managing trustee of a technical education society, was accused by a charity trust of forging lease deeds and submitting false information to obtain permission for running a school. The trust alleged that the appellant altered documents, forged a lease for 87 years, and misrepresented facts to…

The dispute concerned the eligibility of 38 persons listed in the electoral roll for the 1996 election of the managing committee of Vidya Vardhak Sangh, a society registered under the Societies Registration Act and the Bombay Public Trust Act. The appellants argued that the election was void because the 38 persons were…

The case concerned the Marathwada Sarvodya Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, a public trust, where disputes arose over the validity of elections held in 2001. The first respondent challenged the election, but the Joint Charity Commissioner dismissed the limitation defence and initiated suo‑moto proceedings under s.70A, which w…

The appellants, editors of a newspaper, were prosecuted for contempt after publishing material alleged to scandalise the administration of justice. The contempt petition was filed by the Assistant Charity Commissioner, who was a serving civil judge appointed under Section 5 of the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. The app…

The Parsee Girls' School Association, a public trust, leased two floors of its school building to New India Assurance Company Ltd. (NIAC) in 1954. NIAC sub‑let the premises to the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Maharashtra in 1959 without the trust's consent. The trust sought recovery of possession …