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Shri Mallikarjun Devasthan, Shelgi vs. Subhash Mallikarjun Birajdar and Others

Not available · 2024 INSC 339Decided 25 Apr 2024
Not available
Justice A.S. Bopanna · Justice Sanjay Kumar

Background

Shri Mallikarjun Devasthan, Shelgi, a public trust registered in 1952 to maintain a temple, was originally managed under a succession rule where the eldest male member of the founder's family became "Vahiwatdar" (administrator). Over decades, management passed down through the founder's descendants, with changes duly reported to the Charity Commissioner as "Change Reports." A group of temple devotees challenged the acceptance of two such Change Reports (relating to changes in the Vahiwatdar and trustees), arguing procedural defects such as delay in filing. The Bombay High Court sided with the devotees, invalidated the acceptance of the Change Reports, and remanded the matter back to the Deputy Charity Commissioner for fresh consideration, prompting the trust's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court took an overly hypertechnical approach in attaching excessive weight to a delay in submitting the first Change Report, calling it a curable defect that did not affect the substance of the succession already validly carried out within the founder's family. The Court noted the devotees, after their own separate legal challenges to the succession had failed, had no legitimate standing to keep attacking the administrative Change Reports, and that their real grievance (alleged mismanagement of the temple) had a separate statutory remedy under the Act which they could pursue if genuinely aggrieved. The Court set aside the High Court's common judgment, confirmed acceptance of both Change Reports, and allowed the appeals, with parties bearing their own costs.

Lesson Learnt

Courts should not invalidate a substantively valid administrative action over a curable procedural delay, and a party unhappy with how a trust is being run has a specific statutory remedy for that grievance. It cannot be used as a backdoor to reopen a settled succession dispute.

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

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