The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that in the case of public charities and trusts, the aim of public control is to that the administration runs efficiently and smoothly. The case before the bench was that of an appeal against the judgment of the Indore bench of MP High Court in which Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman, Mhow, was denied to sell five properties in Madhya Pradesh despite following due procedures.
“The impugned judgment and the Registrar’s decision are thus set aside,” a panel of justices U U Lalit, R Ravindra Bhat, and Bela M Trivedi declared, allowing the Parsi trust to carry out its choice to sell its five properties following a fresh valuation of each. The assets were evaluated and proposed to be sold via public tender, and notwithstanding all of this disclosed transparency, the Registrar could not have rejected the application as she did, it said, based on her subjective sense of what constituted the trust’s best interests.
The Supreme court held that the decision to sell the properties was reached via a two-layered process in which all members participated and opted to sell the property. The decision was made based on an accurate evaluation of the trust’s current and future liabilities, as well as its obligations such as charity, elder citizen assistance, education, medical and religious assistance imposed by the Trust.
