Probate Case No. 4 of 1989 (O&M) ::1:: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Probate Case No. 4 of 1989 (O&M) Date of decision : April 08, 2010 Smt. Uma Aggarwal ...... Petitioner (s) v. Yadvindera Thakur and others, ...... Respondent(s) *** CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI *** Present : Mr. R.K.Chibber, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. K.S.Sidhu, DAG Punjab *** 1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? *** AJAY TEWARI, J (Oral) Proceedings of the meeting held on 11.3.2010 by the Board of Trustees of Champawati Charitable Trust are taken on record. It appears therefrom that the Trustees have entered their duties in right earnest. In the circumstances, it would be appropriate for this Court to now leave the handling of the Trust in the hands of the Trustees. The Registrar of this Court is directed to hand over all the records, unused cheque books, FDRs, if any, title deeds etc. to the Board of Trustees forthwith through the Executive Chairman, as also to forward the Probate Case No. 4 of 1989 (O&M) ::2:: application of the Trustees along with their specimen signatures to the bank. The Chief Manager, State Bank of Patiala, High Court Branch, is directed to permit the Trustees to operate the bank accounts as per the Trust Deed. He is also required to cooperate with the Board of Trustees as constituted by this Court and to furnish them all necessary information as and when required. As has been noticed both by the Single Bench, as well as the Division Bench of this Court, the Trust has remained un-operational for a very long time. It is also not clear whether the Trust was ever registered with the Income Tax Department. However, ever since the matter came before this Court, whatever accruals have come about have been in the custody of this Court. No doubt, they could not be used for the purpose envisaged by the Trust Deed but they have not served to enrich any individual. No statement of affairs is available nor is it known whether any balance sheet has been drawn up and submitted to any statutory authority. The only alternative is to draw a statement of affairs and balance sheet on the straight-line method basis. It is hope that the Board of Trustees will take immediate steps to have this Trust registered as charitable organization with the Income Tax Department so as to sub-serve the purposes of the Trust. The Trustees, who were removed by this Court, are directed to forthwith hand over all records and documents/funds available with them to the Board of Trustees through the Executive Chairman. It has also come to the notice of this Court that some properties are in the possession of some of the erstwhile Trustees. Any person in possession of the same is also directed to immediately hand over vacant possession of the property to the Board of Trustees through the Executive Probate Case No. 4 of 1989 (O&M) ::3:: Chairman. I find that as per the Trust Deed, any vacancy would be filled by majority vote of the Board of Trustees. Even though it is obvious from the statement, yet in view of the chequered history of the erstwhile Trustees, it is made clear that no person shall be appointed as a Trustee whose position may be in conflict with his personal interest and any person whose personal interest comes into conflict with the Trust would not be qualified to continue as Trustee. With these observations, the directions given by the Division Bench by order dated 14.10.2009 in LPA No.112 of 2006 stand complied with. Before parting with the order, this Court would like to place on record its appreciation to the Board of Trustees for taking up this noble task which would definitely require them to take out time from their busy schedule. The present petition stands disposed of. Let a copy of this order be given to the Chairman of Champawati Trust- Justice A.L.Bahri (Retd) under the signatures of Court Secretary. ( AJAY TEWARI ) April 08, 2010. JUDGE `kk'