CPC 92 — Public charities

Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

Statutory text

(1)  In  the  case  of  any  alleged  breach  of  any  express or  constructive  trust
created  for  public  purposes  of  a  charitable  or  religious  nature,  or  where  the  direction  of  the  Court  is deemed necessary for the administration of any such trust, the Advocate-General, or two or more persons
having an interest in the trust and having obtained the

[leave of the Court,] may institute a suit, whether
contentious or not, in the principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction or in any other Court empowered in
that behalf by the State Government within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the subject-matter of the trust is situate to obtain a decree :—
(a) removing any trustee;
(b) appointing a new trustee;
(c) vesting any property in a trustee;

[(cc)  directing  a  trustee  who  has  been  removed  or  a  person  who  has  ceased  to  be  a  trustee,  to
deliver  possession  of  any  trust  property  in  his  possession  to  the  person  entitled  to  the  possession  of
such property];
(d) directing accounts and inquiries;
(e)  declaring  what  proportion  of  the  trust  property  or of  the  interest  therein shall  be  allocated  to
any particular object of the trust;
(f) authorizing the whole or any part of the trust property to be let, sold, mortgaged or exchanged;
(g) settling a scheme; or
(h) granting such further or other relief as the nature of the case may require.
(2) Save  as  provided  by  the  Religious  Endowments  Act,  1863  (XX  of  1863),

[or  by  any
corresponding  law  in  force  in

[the  territories  which,  immediately  before  the  1st November,  1956,  were comprised  in  Part  B  States]],  no  suit  claiming  any of  the  reliefs  specified  in  sub-section (1) shall  be
instituted in respect of any such trust as is therein referred to except in conformity with the provisions of that sub-section.

[(3) The Court may alter the original purposes of an express or constructive trust created for public
purposes of a charitable or religious nature and allow the property or income of such trust or any portion thereof to be applied cy pres in one or more of the following circumstances, namely:—

(a) where the original purposes of the trust, in whole or in part:—
(i) have been, as far as may be, fulfilled; or
(ii) cannot be carried out at all, or cannot be carried out according to the directions given in
the instrument creating the trust or, where there is no such instrument, according to the spirit of
the trust; or

3. S. 92 shall not apply to any religious trust in Bihar, see Bihar Act 1 of 1951.

(b) where the original purposes of the trust provide a use for a part only of the property available by
virtue of the trust; or
(c)  where  the  property  available  by  virtue  of  the  trust  and  other  property  applicable  for  similar
purposes  can  be  more  effectively  used  in  conjunction  with,  and  to  that  end  can  suitably  be  made
applicable to any other purpose, regard being had to the spirit of the trust and its applicability to common
purposes; or
(d) where the original purposes, in whole or in part, were laid down by reference to an area which then
was, but has since ceased to be, a unit for such purposes; or
(e) where the original purposes, in whole or in part, have, since they were laid down:—
(i) been adequately provided for by other means, or
(ii) ceased, as being useless or harmful to the community, or
(iii) ceased to be, in law, charitable, or
(iv)  ceased  in  any  other  way  to  provide  a  suitable  and  effective  method  of  using  the  property available by virtue of the trust, regard being had to the spirit of the trust.]

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