Dr. K.S. Palanisami (Dead) through LRs. v. Hindu Community in General and Citizens of Gobichettipalayam & Ors.
Background
A couple, Palaniappa Chettiar and his wife Rangammal, executed a joint will in 1968 creating a charitable trust over their considerable house and agricultural properties, with named trustees to manage it and no power to sell the properties. After the husband died, the wife sold off several properties, and after her death in 1980, two other defendants claimed she had left a later will (1980) bequeathing her entire estate to them, under which they too sold several properties to various buyers (including the appellant, Dr. Palanisami). A representative of the local Hindu community sued to enforce the 1968 trust will and have the later sales declared void.
Decision Breakdown
The trial court and, on appeal, the High Court both found that the 1968 will was a valid, mutual and irrevocable joint will, that the 1980 will was not genuine, and that sales made after the husband's death breached the trust. The Supreme Court agreed that the 1980 will was fraudulent but held that the wife, as the surviving owner under the 1968 will, had an absolute right to deal with the properties during her own lifetime, meaning sales she personally made (including to Dr. Palanisami and others) were valid and could not be treated as void, even though sales made later by the fraudulent-will claimants were correctly held null and void. The appeals were therefore partly allowed only to exclude the genuinely-sold properties from the trust, while the rest of the High Court's scheme for running the charitable trust was upheld, and the trial court was directed to frame the management scheme for the trust promptly.
Lesson Learnt
Even where a charity-creating will restricts future alienation by named trustees, a sole surviving owner who is personally entitled to deal with the property in her own lifetime can validly sell it: the restriction binds the trust's management, not necessarily every sale by the owner herself; by contrast, sales made under a will later proved fraudulent are void from the start.