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ADV Babasaheb Wasade & Ors. vs Manohar Gangadhar Muddeshwar & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 52Decided 23 Jan 2024
Not available
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah

Background

A charitable society (Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, Mul), registered as a public trust running educational institutions, lost its President, Vice-President and Secretary to death and vacancy. The appellant, who had been designated Working President, called a special general body meeting on the request of 16 members and held elections in 2002, in which he became President. Objectors challenged the resulting "change report" filed with the Assistant Charity Commissioner, alleging defective notice and invalid signatories, and both the Charity Commissioner and the courts below (District Judge and Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench) rejected the change report.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the authorities below had wrongly rejected the change report and set aside the High Court's judgment as well as the orders rejecting the change report, directing that it be accepted. However, the Court flagged an unresolved issue: four signatories to the requisition were categorised as "Employee Members" but had in fact retired before signing, and there was no record of any resolution converting or continuing their membership after retirement, raising doubts about whether they were validly counted. Because of this ongoing internal stalemate in a society running educational institutions, the Court directed the Charity Commissioner to hold fresh elections for a new Executive Committee within six months, resolving all membership questions based on the existing records.

Lesson Learnt

In membership-based societies and trusts, changes in a member's underlying eligibility category (such as ceasing to be an "employee") can affect their voting or signatory rights unless properly documented through a fresh resolution: informal continuation of membership by merely paying subscription fees is not enough to preserve category-specific rights.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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