Prior court approval needed for public interest suits under Section 92: SC

Writing 168-page, Justice Pardiwala, however, pointed out at the stage of grant of leave, court neither adjudicates upon the merits of the dispute nor confers any substantive rights upon the parties

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a prior nod from court was needed to file a lawsuit under the provision dealing with public charities of the Civil Procedure Code as the action was launched on behalf of public beneficiaries and that too in public interest.

The top court issued directions on the legal issues and dismissed an appeal filed by a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, which challenged the maintainability of a suit against it under Section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC).

Section 92 of the CPC deals with lawsuits relating to public charitable or religious trusts and permits legal action to be taken in cases of alleged breaches of trust, or when the court's direction is needed for the trust's administration.

A suit under Section 92 of the CPC is a representative suit of a special nature since the action is instituted on behalf of the public beneficiaries and in public interest. Obtaining a grant of leave' from the court before the suit can be proceeded with, acts as a procedural and legislative safeguard in order to prevent public trusts from being subjected to undue harassment through frivolous suits being filed against them and also to obviate a situation that would cause a further wastage of resources which can otherwise be put towards public charitable or religious aims, a bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said.

Writing 168-page, Justice Pardiwala, however, pointed out at the stage of grant of leave, the court neither adjudicates upon the merits of the dispute nor confers any substantive rights upon the parties.

A trust can be said to have been created for a public purpose' when the beneficiaries are the general public who are incapable of exact ascertainment. Even if the beneficiaries are not necessarily the public at large, they must at least be a classified section of it and not a pre-ascertained group of specific individuals, it said.

The special nature of the suit under Section 92 requires it to be filed fundamentally on behalf of the public for the vindication of public rights, it said.

Therefore, courts must go beyond the reliefs and also give due regard to the object and purpose for which the suit is brought. The true nature of the suit must be determined on a comprehensive understanding of the facts of the matter and a hard-and-fast rule cannot be made for the same, it said.