1 Amk IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 4045 OF 2009 Shri Narmadeshvar Shikshan Prasarak Mandal .. Petitioner Vs. Joint Charity Commissioner, Latur Region, Latur & Ors. .. Respondents Mr. A. B. Tajane i/b Mrs. Gouri Jadhav for the Petitioner. Mr. S. N. Bhosale AGP for Respondent No.1. CORAM : MRS. R. S. DALVI, J. DATE : 8th March, 2010. P.C. 1. The petitioner through its president have sought to sell one of the immovable properties of the trust for which the permission of the Joint Charity Commissioner was to be obtained. The petitioner is an educational trust. It requires certain amounts for construction of the extension of its school building. The property which is required to be sold is an agricultural land. The petitioner trust cannot cultivate the land by itself. The land is lying 2 fallow. There is no income from the land. Only one water canal passes through it. The petitioner would obtain the value of the land and better utilize it for the purpose for which the trust is formed namely viz. education. 2. The learned Joint Charity Commissioner has refused permission on the ground that the trust has sufficient income from agricultural land owned by the trust and the trust does not have genuine in need to alienate the trust property. The learned Joint Charity Commissioner has observed that the account of the trust shows Rs.26.36 lacs lying in its bank account for the year ended 31.01.2006. For construction and the extension of the school building this amount may not even be sufficient. The learned Joint Charity Commissioner is required to see the interest of the trust. In seeing that he must see that the best possible price is obtained. In this case the interest of the trust is to liquidate its immovable property for utilization in the objects of the trust. Consequently, the sale cannot be refused if it otherwise fetches the correct market value on the ground that the trust has other income or amount in the bank account. 3 3. In this case the learned Joint Charity Commissioner has passed an order on 05.12.2008 calling for fresh offers. The fresh offers have been received. The highest offer is to be accepted. It is stated to be more than market value of the trust property. There can be no fetters upon the trustees from selling the property in the interest of the Trust and deriving more than market value. 4. The learned AGP was directed to take instructions on the last occasion. The government has not filed any affidavit-in-reply. The learned AGP states that because the bank account of the trust shows more than Rs. 26 lacs, the trustees cannot sell the agricultural land. The contention is not in keeping with the object of Section 36 of the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. The interest of the trust alone has to be seen. That interest would be preserved and better effectuated by the sale of agricultural land to have the amount utilized for the object of the trust. Hence, the impugned order cannot be sustained and is required to interfered with. Since the order itself shows that the offer received by the trust is more than market value of the trust property, the learned Joint Charity Commissioner has 4 exceeded his jurisdiction in not allowing the sale on the ground that the trust has no genuine need to sell of its property. 5. Consequently, the impugned order dated 17.02.2009 is set aside. The learned Joint Charity Commissioner, Latur Region, Latur shall allow the sale of trust property to the highest bidder as the offer is more than market value. (R. S. DALVI, J.)