Charitable Endowments Act, 1890

For the vesting and administration of Property held in trust for charitable purposes.

Charitable Endowments Act, 1890

[Act 6 of 1890]      [7th March, 1890]

An Act to provide for the Vesting and Administration of Property held in trust for charitable purposes.

WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the vesting and administration of property held in trust for charitable purposes; It is hereby enacted as follows:—

Statement of Objects and Reasons.—“On many occasions the want has been felt in India of an official capable of discharging the functions which are discharged in England by the Official Trustee of Charity Lands and the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds. The object of this Bill is to meet that want.

2. Much property has from time to time in different parts of India been vested by founders in public servants, such as the Collector, Director of Public Instruction, Accountant-General and Divisional Commissioner. With respect to a case in which an Accountant-General and a Divisional Commissioner had been named as trustees, the Officiating Advocate-General of Bengal and the Officiating Standing Counsel stated in a joint opinion in 1885 that persons cannot, as holders of certain posts, be appointed trustees “unless these posts are corporate ones”. Neither the “office of the Accountant-General nor that of the Commissioner” they observed, “is a corporate office; and even if appointed by the designation of their office only, and not by name, the trust-fund would vest in them as individuals, and they would remain trustees until they themselves appointed others to succeed them or until they died”.

3. There is a difficulty in India in finding any corporation capable of acting as a trustee in such cases as this Bill is designed to meet. The Secretary of State for India in Council and the Governor-General in Council are incapable of being trustees (L.R. 15 Ch. D. 9). It has also been held that Anglican Bishops and Archdeacons in India, who have been constituted by Letters Patent to be perpetual corporations, with power to take and hold property under grant or licence from the Crown, are not capable of acting as trustees in some of the cases for which this Bill is intended to provide. To the question whether the Lord Bishop of Calcutta in his corporate capacity might not, under the Letters Patent for the Bishopric of Calcutta, bearing date the 14th May 1814, hold land upon trust for a Diocesan School so that, upon his ceasing to be Bishop, it would devolve without a deed upon his successor in the Bishopric, an eminent counsel in England, to whom the question was referred, has replied in the negative. “It is quite true”, he remarks, “that the Bishop is a corporation sole, and in that capacity can hold the lands belonging to his See. He may, however, only hold such lands as by grant or licence from the Company (now Her Majesty) he is authorised to take, hold and enjoy. I think it is clear that the Letters Patent only refer to lands belonging to, or purchased out of moneys belonging to, the Bishopric…… on the whole. I am of opinion that, if the land in question was conveyed to the Bishop as a trustee, it would pass on his death not to his successor but to his executors”.

4. The Bill, it will be observed, is of a purely permissive character. The Government will be unable to make a vesting order or frame a scheme except on application for that purpose, and may, if it sees fit, refuse to act. The corporation sole in whom as Treasurer of Charitable Endowments property may be vested is, except as regards the disposal of any property by direction of the Government, to have nothing to do with the administration of the property. He is to be a bare trustee, the object of vesting the property in him by his name of office as a corporation sole being to secure the holding of the property by some one always present, and to avoid the difficulty and expense of appointing a new trustee on the retirement or death of any incumbent of the trust”.

1. Title, extent and commencement.

1. Title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act[i] may be called the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890.

(2) It extends to the whole of India, [ii][* * *], [iii][* * *]; and

(3) It shall come into force on the first day of October, 1890.

2. Definition.

2. Definition.—In this Act “charitable purpose” includes relief of the poor, education, medical relief and the advancement of any other object of general public utility, but does not include a purpose which relates exclusively to religious teaching or worship.

3. Appointment and incorporation of Treasurer of Charitable Endowments.

3. Appointment and incorporation of Treasurer of Charitable Endowments.—[iv][(1) The Central Government may appoint an officer of the Government by the name of his office to be Treasurer of Charitable Endowments for India, and the Government of any State may appoint an officer of the Government by the name of his office to be Treasurer of Charitable Endowments for the State.]

(2) Such Treasurer shall, for the purposes of taking, holding and transferring movable or immovable property under the authority of this Act, be a corporation sole by the name of the Treasurer of Charitable Endowments for [v][India or, as the case may be, the State], and, as such Treasurer, shall have perpetual succession and a corporate seal, and may sue and be sued in his corporate name.

3-A. Definition of “appropriate Government”, etc.

[vi][3-A. Definition of “appropriate Government”, etc.—In the subsequent provisions of this Act “the appropriate Government” means, as respects a charitable endowment, the objects of which do not extend beyond a single State and are not objects to which the executive authority of the Central Government extends, the Government of the State, and as respects any other charitable endowment the Central Government.]

4. Orders vesting property in Treasurer.

4. Orders vesting property in Treasurer.—(1) Where any property is held or is to be applied in trust for charitable purpose, the [vii][appropriate Government], if it thinks fit, may, on application made as hereinafter mentioned, and subject to the other provisions of this section, order, by [viii]notification in the Official Gazette, that the property be vested in the Treasurer of Charitable Endowments on such terms as to the application of the property or the income thereof as may be agreed on between the [ix][appropriate Government] and the person or persons making the application, and the property shall thereupon so vest accordingly.

(2) When any property has vested under this section in a Treasurer of Charitable Endowments, he is entitled to all documents of title relating thereto.

(3) [x][* * *]

(4) An order under this section vesting property in a Treasurer of Charitable Endowments shall not require or be deemed to require him to administer the property, or impose or be deemed to impose upon him the duty of a trustee with respect to the administration thereof.

5. Schemes for administration of property vested in the Treasurer.

5. Schemes for administration of property vested in the Treasurer.—(1) On application made as hereinafter mentioned, and with the concurrence of the person or persons making the application, the [xi][appropriate Government], if it thinks fit, may settle a scheme for the administration of any property which has been or is to be vested in the Treasurer of Charitable Endowments, and may in such scheme appoint, by name or office, a person or persons, not being or including such Treasurer, to administer the property.

(2) On application, made as hereinafter mentioned, and with the concurrence of the person or persons making the application, the [xii][appropriate Government] may, if it thinks fit, modify any scheme settled under this section or substitute another scheme in its stead.

(3) A scheme settled, modified or substituted under this section shall, subject to the other provisions of this section, come into operation on a day to be appointed by the [xiii][appropriate Government] in this behalf, and shall remain in force so long as the property to which it relates continues to be vested in the Treasurer of Charitable Endowments or until it has been modified or another such scheme has been substituted in its stead.

(4) Such a scheme, when it comes into operation, shall supersede any decree or direction relating to the subject-matter thereof insofar as such decree or direction is in any way repugnant thereto, and its validity shall not be questioned in any Court, nor shall any Court give, in contravention of the provisions of the scheme or in any way contrary or in addition thereto, a decree or direction regarding the administration of the property to which the scheme relates:

[xiv][Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall be construed as precluding a Court from inquiring whether the Government by which a scheme was made was the appropriate Government.]

(5) In the settlement of such a scheme effect shall be given to the wishes of the author of the trust so far as they can be ascertained, and, in the opinion of the [xv][appropriate Government], effect can reasonably be given to them.

(6) Where a scheme has been settled under this section for the administration of property not already vested in the Treasurer of Charitable Endowments, it shall not come into operation until the property has become so vested.[xvi]

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