Gujarat High Court stays Anandiben Patel's appointment as trustee

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday stayed an order of the Ahmedabad charity commissioner by which former chief minister Anandiben Patel, who is presently the governor of Madhya Pradesh, was appointed as a permanent trustee of an education trust at Palanpur in Banaskantha district.

The stay was granted by the single judge bench of Justice AY Kogje after members of the Vimalaben and Sarabhai Shah Education Trust moved the high court against the charity commissioner's order. The court also issued a notice to the charity commissioner directing him to clarify his stand on the matter by May 1. Notably, the charity commissioner through the impugned order on February 20 had not just appointed Anandiben as a permanent trustee but had also requested her to propose the names of other trustees.

Counsel for the petitioners Digant Popat submitted before the court that the charity commissioner's order is without jurisdiction, devoid of any reasoning, and in contravention of the Bombay Public Trusts Act. He also submitted that such orders cannot be passed by a quasi-judicial authority under the influence of a political person. The advocate also contended that Anandiben cannot be appointed as a trustee as she is not a member of the trust and therefore, her appointment is beyond the ambit of the memorandum of association upon which the trust is functioning. Popat also submitted that Anandiben is governor of MP and stays there, and charity commissioner has failed to check whether she will be able to discharge her duties as a trustee or not.

Notably, the trust was set up in 1996 under the Bombay Public Trusts Act for the upliftment and betterment in the field of education, as well as for carrying out social activities. As per the memorandum of association, there can be a minimum seven trustees, with 11 being the maximum. The trust was functioning smoothly till 2011, but the proposed induction of new trustees by one of the trustees Mahesh Shah allegedly ended up creating a chaos and turmoil in the trust's functioning.

Following the chaos, the petitioners, being members of the trust, moved an application before the joint charity commissioner in Mehsana for the appointment of eight members as interim trustees, which was transferred to the Ahmedabad charity commissioner. Thereafter, the petitioners also made an application before the charity commissioner for modifying the memorandum of association in which the latter passed the impugned order.