The Rajasthan High Court held that the power of attorney holder of a trust who is also its manager would fall under the definition of ‘trustee’ as given under Section 2(17) of the Rajasthan Public Trust Act, 1959.

The Court said that he is also permitted to led evidence on behalf of the trust.

The Court was hearing a Writ Petition against the order passed by the Rent Tribunal which partly allowed the application preferred by the defendant.

The bench of Justice Rekha Borana perused Sections 2(17) and 2(18) of the Rajasthan Public Trust Act, 1959 that defines a ‘Trustee’ and a ‘Working Trustee’ and observed, “Manager of a Trust holds the capacity of a Trustee. Therefore, the power of attorney holder of the petitioner-Trust who was Manager of the Trust, definitely falls under the definition of a “Trustee”. He could therefore, very well have led evidence on behalf of the petitioner-Trust and ought to have been permitted as such.”

Advocate Sandeep Saruparia appeared for the Appellant and Advocate D.D. Chitlangi appeared for the Respondent.

In the present case, it was prayed on behalf of the defendant that the evidence of Parsmal Pipada, power of attorney holder of the petitioner-Trust, be not read and further, the documents marked as exhibits in his affidavit be also demarked.

The Court noted that it is admitted on record that the power of attorney holder of the petitioner-trust was the Manager of the petitioner-trust.

The Court said that when it has reached to a conclusion that the manager could have deposed on behalf of petitioner-Trust, as a necessary corollary, the documents as sought to be exhibited vide his affidavit definitely could have been exhibited.

Accordingly, the Court quashed and set aside the order.

Finally, the Court disposed of the Writ Petition.

Cause Title: Shri Ramniwas Dham Trust v. Nirmla Choudhary (Neutral Citation: 2024:RJ-JD:33235)
Appearance:
Appellant: Adv. Sandeep Saruparia and Adv. Nikhil Ajmera
Respondent: Adv. D.D. Chitlangi