LegalAware
LegalAware.ai
EMPOWERING LEGAL AWARENESS

The Management of Worth Trust v. The Secretary Worth Trust Workers Union

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 432Decided 2 Apr 2025
C.A. No. 4717-4717 of 2025 (arising from SLP(C) No. 20474 of 2019)
Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

WORTH Trust (originally the Swedish Red Cross Rehabilitation Trust) was set up to rehabilitate leprosy-cured and differently-abled persons, but since 1985 it had also run profit-making factories manufacturing automobile and industrial machinery parts, employing many of its rehabilitated beneficiaries as factory workers. When the workers' union sought a bonus and ex-gratia payment for 1996-97, the Industrial Tribunal held the workers entitled to a minimum 8.33% bonus, a decision the High Court upheld (with a modification adjusting for ex-gratia already paid). The trust argued it should be exempt from the Bonus Act as an institution like the Indian Red Cross Society or as a non-profit institution.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that once workers are employed in a "factory" as defined under the Factories Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act automatically applies to them regardless of the charitable character of the parent trust, because the exemptions under Section 32 of the Bonus Act (for the Red Cross Society or similar, and non-profit institutions) apply only to the institution as a whole, not selectively to its commercial factory operations. The trust had itself severed all formal ties with the Swedish Red Cross Society since 1989 and could not show it was equivalent to the (statutorily created) Indian Red Cross Society, so neither exemption applied; merely paying voluntary "ex-gratia" out of charity could not substitute for the statutory bonus obligation. The appeal was dismissed and the trust was directed to pay bonus to its factory workers under the Act from 1996-97 onward.

Lesson Learnt

Running a charity does not exempt an organization from labour law obligations toward workers employed in its commercial/industrial operations, if the activity meets the legal definition of a "factory," statutory dues like bonus must be paid regardless of the parent body's charitable mission.

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

More rulings in Religious & Charitable Endowments Law

Religious & Charitable Endowments LawSupreme Court of India

Arjun Dass v. The State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors.

The Supreme Court held that the removal effectively undid, through administrative action, a judicial determination that had already attained finality and been executed by the State's own government order. Because the Dharmika Parishad itself had been defunct for nearly two years with no reconstitution in sight, the Court found the existing institutional framework structurally unable to deliver a fair, timely fresh enquiry, and invoked its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to fashion a one-time, case-specific solution. It set aside the High Court's judgment and the removal order, restored the appellant as Mathadhipati (with authority over religious functions), but simultaneously constituted a court-appointed Administrative Committee (headed by a retired High Court judge) to jointly oversee the Mutt's administration and finances pending a fresh enquiry by a duly reconstituted Dharmika Parishad.

Decided 29 May 2026Read case
Religious & Charitable Endowments LawSupreme Court of India

Ogeppa (D) Thr. LRs. v. Sahebgouda (D) Thr. LRs.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, holding that its power under Article 136 is used sparingly, especially against concurrent findings of fact by two lower courts. It found the appellants' own predecessor had filed a 1944 suit for possession of the temple, itself an admission that they were not in possession, and then failed to pursue that claim for 36 years, undermining the value of the older 1901 decree. Revenue records showed only the respondents' ancestors connected to lands granted for the temple's upkeep, and even the appellants' own witness admitted facts supporting the respondents. The Court also held that the appellants' pleadings never specified when they took possession or began performing puja, so oral evidence could not fill that gap. Finding no perversity in the High Court's judgment, the appeals were dismissed with no order as to costs.

Decided 25 Feb 2026Read case
Religious & Charitable Endowments LawSupreme Court of India

Kapadam Sangalappa and Others vs. Kamatam Sangalappa and Others

The Supreme Court held that the burden of proving a violation of the compromise decree rested on the Kapadam family, as the decree-holders seeking execution, and that they had failed to produce cogent proof that the Kamatam family had actually breached the rotation terms. Since a court cannot allow execution of a decree based on mere presumption without evidence, the Court found the executing court had erred in ordering execution, and that the High Court had rightly reversed that order. The appeals were dismissed, leaving the executing court's order set aside.

Decided 11 Nov 2025Read case
Religious & Charitable Endowments LawSupreme Court of India

Operation Asha v. Shelly Batra

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, holding that the suit could go ahead. It undertook a detailed examination of when a society (as opposed to a religious/charitable trust in the traditional sense) can be treated as holding its assets "in trust" for Section 92 purposes, concluding that a society is not automatically an "express trust" merely by being registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, but that a "constructive trust" can arise by operation of law where a fiduciary, such as an office-bearer entrusted with the society's donations and funds, is alleged to have misappropriated or diverted that property for personal benefit. The Court found that the allegations here (of large-scale siphoning of donations into shell entities, misuse of funds, and financial impropriety by the accused office-bearers) were serious enough to prima facie satisfy the conditions needed to invoke Section 92, and that Dr. Batra and her mother, as long-time members with a genuine stake in the society's affairs, qualified as "persons having an interest in the trust" entitled to bring such a suit. However, the Court clarified that purely personal or internal grievances, such as the dispute over Dr. Batra's own removal from the Board: do not themselves belong in a Section 92 suit and must be pursued separately; only the allegations concerning misuse of the society's charitable funds and property fall within its scope. The underlying suit was directed to proceed before the High Court, which must now examine on the merits whether a constructive trust over the diverted funds actually exists.

Decided 5 Aug 2025Read case
Religious & Charitable Endowments LawSupreme Court of India

Prasannatma Das v. K.N. Haridasan Nambiar (Dead) and Others

The Supreme Court found that the plaintiffs (one faction) had produced no evidence to substantiate their claim to have been validly elected, whereas both the Trial Court and the High Court had accepted the rival faction's case based on the 1 July 1984 meeting. Finding no error in the concurrent findings of fact by the lower courts, the Court dismissed Civil Appeal Nos. 3821-3822 of 2023, while allowing a connected appeal (No. 9313 of 2014) by restoring an earlier trial court decree that had been overturned by the High Court. The remaining connected appeals were disposed of as not surviving in light of these findings, the related contempt petition was not proceeded with, and an FIR connected to the dispute was quashed. The Court also directed dissolution, after one month, of a court-appointed oversight committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge.

Decided 16 May 2025Read case
Religious & Charitable Endowments LawSupreme Court of India

Ishwar Chanda Sharma v. Devendra Kumar Sharma & Ors.

The Supreme Court examined data on 197 pending temple-related civil suits in Mathura district and found that many ancient temples had been under Receiver control, often practising advocates, for decades, with little urgency to actually resolve the underlying disputes, since a Receiver's continued role depends on the case staying unresolved. The Court held that the trial court's appointment of a seven-member committee, including lawyers, defeated the purpose of Order XL Rule 1 of the CPC (which allows courts to appoint receivers only as a temporary, just measure) and upheld the High Court's decision to set it aside. It directed that a fresh Receiver be appointed for the temple, this time preferring a person with genuine administrative, historical, religious and social grounding, ideally from the Vaishnav tradition, rather than a practising advocate, and directed the trial court and district judiciary to make every effort to actually decide the underlying 25-year-old suit rather than let receivership become permanent.

Decided 15 May 2025Read case