HON’BLE GUJARAT HIGH COURT recently declared Land Grabbing Act to be constitutional and valid. The said act has a huge impact on the Transactions of Land and property between the Trusts and the Private purchasers, done without the sanction of the Charity Commissioner.
The purchasers/buyers of a Trust property may have to face criminal proceedings under the act because the sale deed / agreement to sale without the sanction of the Charity Commissioner is null and void and hence illegal and thus the possession of the Trust property in contravention to the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 can be termed as illegal.
Since the Charity Commissioner is the custodian of the Public Trusts, in addition to declaring such Transaction as illegal and intimating revenue authorities, in order to obtain the Trust property back from the purchaser, the Charity Commissioner may have to initiate the complaint under the new act.
It will be interesting to see how the said provisions envisaged under the new act qua charitable trusts will be invoked and by whom / which authority.
Hence the purchasers/builders considering buying Trust property / Land will have to be extra cautious since it may no longer be only a Civil Dispute.