- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) These appeals are directed against the common judgment and order dated April 23, 2012 (in First Appeal Nos. 1535 and 1536 of 2009) passed by the High Court of Gujarat, affirming the order dated February 3, 2009 passed by the City Civil Court (in Civil Misc. Application Nos. 470 of 2008 and 630 of 2008). The City Civil Court set aside the order dated May 23, 2008, passed by the Charity Commissioner. The said adjudication was made by the Charity Commissioner pursuant to the order passed by this Court in Vinod Kumar Mathurseva Malvia & Anr. v. Maganlal Mangaldas Gameti and Ors., 2006 9 SCC 282 (being Civil Appeal No. 1260 of 2006, arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 24198 of 2005, decided on February 24, 2006) in an earlier ancillary dispute wherein this Court directed the Charity Commissioner to adjudicate on all questions pertaining to the merger of trust and other pending disputes as expeditiously as possible. Thus, the Charity Commissioner adjudicated on the objections against Change Report Nos. 44 of 1981 and 665 of 1981.
(3.) The facts of the case briefly are as follows : 1. The facts of the present case are not much in dispute and the background of the same lies with the facts in the matter adjudicated by this Court in Church of North India v. Lavajibhai Ratanjibhai & Ors., 2005 10 SCC 760 (being Civil Appeal No. 9419 of 2003 as decided on May 3, 2005), therefore, the detailed background of the parties and the organizations involved has not been mentioned and only the facts pertinent to the dispute in question are stated. 2. The abovementioned Change Reports were filed by First District Church of the Brethren (hereinafter referred to as 'the FDCB') a registered religious society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as 'the SR Act') bearing Registration No. 1202/44 and later registered as public trust in Gujarat bearing No.E- 643/Bharuch, after the enactment of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as 'the BPTA') property of which is vested with its 'Property Committee' and the Church of North India (hereinafter referred to as 'the CNI'), Gujarat Diocese. The CNI is a public trust registered by an application accepted on May 12, 1970 with effect of registration being given from 1971 and the trust being formed on November 29, 1970 with Registration No. D-17/Ahmedabad. 3. These Change Reports were filed to give effect to the unification of six churches which included the FDCB, an offshoot of the 'Brethren Church' of USA (other Churches being The Council of the Baptist Churches in North India, The Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, The Methodist Church (British and Australian Conference), The Methodist Church in Southern Asia and The United Church of Northern India) into a single entity, 'The Church of North India' (with the Gujarat Chapter being managed by the Church of North India, Gujarat, Diocese). 4. This unification is the result of a process which commenced from 1929. The negotiation meetings commenced from 1955 onwards which had representatives from the uniting churches who discussed every aspect of the emerging entity. A result of which was the Plan of Church Union in 1965 called the 4th Revised Edition in the form of a printed booklet published by the Negotiating Committee and widely circulated and deliberated by the uniting Churches which adopted the same. The plan traced the historic background leading to the creation of the CNI and dealt with all aspects of the same. Part-II of the same pertained to procedural details of the unification. The plan is a result of the negotiations through various meetings convened in the years 1955, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1964 and 1970. The Managing Committee of the FDCB being the 'District Committee' initially participated in these meetings as an observer, however, from 1956, it joined the negotiation process. It is alleged that Resolution No. 70/08 was passed on February, 17, 1970 pursuant to which the CNI was formed by merging the six churches. FDCB being one of the six churches, discussed the unification internally within its 21 Societies and put the same to vote at different junctions and in the final decision, the resolution was approved by 3/5th majority of the representatives of the Governing Body. Allegedly, on November 29, 1970, the FDCB merged with the other six churches to form CNI and accepted the same as its legal continuation and successor and vested with the CNI its rights, titles, claims and FDCB's interests together with its privileges and obligations. 5. In 1976, the Church of North India Trust Association (hereinafter referred to as 'the CNITA') was formed under the Indian Companies Act, 1956 and appointed as the trustee of CNI. It has been alleged that the annual meetings of the FDCB were discontinued post 1971. That certain members which had earlier given consent to Resolution 70/08 began to raise objections that FDCB continued to exist. Subsequently, the original plaintiff (Shri A.O. Patel) filed Civil Suit No. 72 of 1979 in the Court of the Civil Judge, Senior Division, Bharuch for a declaration that FDCB has come to an end and that CNI is the legal successor and continuation of the same. During the pendency of the suit, CNI got itself registered retrospectively and Change Report Nos. 44/81 and 665/81 were filed before the Charity Commissioner to give effect to the changes resulting the unification. The aforementioned suit, after an appeal before the District Judge, Bharuch went before the Gujarat High Court as Second Appeal No. 303 of 1986, the same was dismissed and the matter came up before this Court as Church of North India v. Lavajibhai Ratanjibhai & Ors. (In Civil Appeal No. 9419 of 2003, decided on May 3, 2005). Therein, the question which arose before this Court was: whether Section 80 of the BPTA imposes a bar on the jurisdiction of the Civil Court. 6. The present dispute, however, arises from objections arising out of the adjudication by the Charity Commissioner dated May 23, 2008 regarding Change Report Nos. 44/81 and 665/81. The same proceeding commenced post the direction of this Court in Vinod Kumar Mathurseva Malvia & Anr. v. Maganlal Mangaldas Gameti & Ors. (Being Civil Appeal No. 1260 of 2006, decided on February 24, 2006). The same arose out of orders dated October 6, 2005 and October 10, 2005, passed in First Appeal No. 988 of 2005 by the High Court of Gujarat with regard to a trust application appointing a new trustee. The matter before this Court was regarding the interpretation and application of Clause 9 of the scheme of Church of Brethren General Board. This Court referred to the earlier Church of North India v. Lavajibhai Ratanjibhai & Ors. decision of this Court applicable to the same set of facts and thereby directed the concerned Charity Commissioner to adjudicate on all pending disputes. 7. The Charity Commissioner adjudicated on the disputes arising out of the Change Report Nos. 44/81 and 665/81. The former was filed by Shri A.O. Patel being the Reporting Trustee of the Brethren Trust concerned with the dissolution of the constitution of the Brethren Trust with its "Memorandum of Association" becoming "obsolete" and ineffective (It should be noted that Shri A.O. Patel had died during the pendency of the proceedings and appellant Nos. 1 and 2 were joined in his place). The latter report was filed by CNI, Gujarat Diocese Trust which requests for the change, that as the CNI Trust has become the legal continuation and successor of the Brethren Trust, its concerned movable and immovable property must be added to CNI's properties. The Change Reports were objected by Shri Nityanand Thakore and other objectors filed similar objection applications. These persons along with the respondents in this dispute being Shri Shantilal Thakore and Shri Maganlal M. Gameti had earlier given consent to the unification proceeding. The Charity Commissioner thus adjudicated on the following questions:- i) Whether the change is legal ii) Whether the said Change Reports or any of the Change Reports are liable to be allowed The Charity Commissioner answered both in affirmative and dismissed the objections raised against the Change Reports, allowing the properties vested in FDCB to be vested in CNI. 8. Against the abovementioned order of the Charity Commissioner, the objectors to the Change Reports preferred Civil Miscellaneous Application Nos. 470 of 2008 and 630 of 2008 before the City Civil Court, Ahmedabad under Section 72 of the BPTA. The applications were filed, alleging that there was no lawful merger of the Trust and the property vested with the Property Committee continued to exist with it. The questions which arose before the learned City Civil Judge are as under:- i) Whether the Society is dissolved and secondly, whether the Trust, i.e., FDCB is also dissolved ii) Whether CNI is successor of the Trust, i.e., FDCB iii) Whether by mere merger of FDCB into various other Churches, the properties are by rules and regulations of the Society ipso facto vested in CNI, without having to perform any other legal obligation or formality 9. The learned Civil Court Judge, after analyzing the various aspects of the BPTA and the SR Act, was of the opinion that the FDCB had not been dissolved as there was no proper proof of the same. Furthermore, as a trust and society are creations of statutes, they must be dissolved accordingly and the question of merger is a factual one, wherein the merging trust continues to exist unless specifically dissolved under the statute. Furthermore, without following Section 50A of the BPTA which deals with the dissolution of trust, the FDCB property cannot be vested with CNI. Thus, the learned Civil Court Judge quashed and set aside the order of the Charity Commissioner. 10. The appellants (wherein appellant No.1 was one of the respondents in the above suit) preferred First Appeal Nos. 1535 of 2009 and 1536 of 2009 before the High Court of Gujarat. The basic issue before the learned Single Judge was to determine whether the CNI is the successor and legal continuation of FDCB or not. The learned Single Judge while adjudicating the same, referred to the earlier decisions of this Court in the same factual matrix and based on the earlier findings, dismissed the appeals and confirmed the order of the Civil Court. 11. It is from this order of the High Court the matter rests before us.;