Sections 91 and 92 CPC: Public Nuisance and Public Charitable Trusts

Sections 91 and 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 deal with representative civil proceedings affecting the public. Section 91 concerns public nuisances and other wrongful acts affecting or likely to affect the public. Section 92 governs specified suits concerning express or constructive trusts created for public charitable or religious purposes.

Current central law: Sections 91 and 92 continue to form part of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Section 91 permits specified public-interest suits even without proof of special damage to the plaintiffs, while Section 92 requires the statutory conditions relating to a public charitable or religious trust and, for suits by interested persons, leave of the Court.

Section 91 CPC - Public Nuisances and Other Wrongful Acts Affecting the Public

(1) In the case of a public nuisance or other wrongful act affecting, or likely to affect, the public, a suit for a declaration and injunction or for such other relief as may be appropriate in the circumstances of the case may be instituted:

(a) by the Advocate-General; or

(b) with the leave of the Court, by two or more persons, even though no special damage has been caused to such persons by reason of such public nuisance or other wrongful act.

(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to limit or otherwise affect any right of suit which may exist independently of its provisions.

Meaning and effect of Section 91

  • The provision covers a public nuisance and other wrongful acts affecting or likely to affect the public.
  • The Advocate-General may institute the suit.
  • Two or more persons may also sue with leave of the Court even if they have suffered no special damage.
  • The Court may grant a declaration, injunction or other appropriate relief.
  • Sub-section (2) preserves any independent right of suit available outside Section 91.

Section 92 CPC - Public Charities

(1) In the case of any alleged breach of any express or constructive trust created for public purposes of a charitable or religious nature, or where the direction of the Court is deemed necessary for the administration of any such trust, the Advocate-General, or two or more persons having an interest in the trust and having obtained the leave of the Court, may institute a suit, whether contentious or not, in the principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction or in any other Court empowered in that behalf by the State Government within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the subject-matter of the trust is situate, to obtain a decree:

(a) removing any trustee;

(b) appointing a new trustee;

(c) vesting any property in a trustee;

(cc) directing a trustee who has been removed or a person who has ceased to be a trustee to deliver possession of any trust property in that person's possession to the person entitled to possession of such property;

(d) directing accounts and inquiries;

(e) declaring what proportion of the trust property or of the interest therein shall be allocated to any particular object of the trust;

(f) authorizing the whole or any part of the trust property to be let, sold, mortgaged or exchanged;

(g) settling a scheme; or

(h) granting such further or other relief as the nature of the case may require.

(2) Save as provided by the Religious Endowments Act, 1863, or by any corresponding law in force in the territories which, immediately before 1 November 1956, were comprised in Part B States, no suit claiming any of the reliefs specified in sub-section (1) shall be instituted in respect of any such trust except in conformity with the provisions of that sub-section.

(3) The Court may alter the original purposes of an express or constructive trust created for public purposes of a charitable or religious nature and allow the property or income of such trust or any portion thereof to be applied cy pres in one or more of the following circumstances:

(a) where the original purposes of the trust, in whole or in part:

(i) have been, as far as may be, fulfilled; or

(ii) cannot be carried out at all, or cannot be carried out according to the directions given in the instrument creating the trust or, where there is no such instrument, according to the spirit of the trust; or

(b) where the original purposes of the trust provide a use for a part only of the property available by virtue of the trust; or

(c) where the property available by virtue of the trust and other property applicable for similar purposes can be more effectively used in conjunction with, and to that end can suitably be made applicable to any other purpose, regard being had to the spirit of the trust and its applicability to common purposes; or

(d) where the original purposes, in whole or in part, were laid down by reference to an area which then was, but has since ceased to be, a unit for such purposes; or

(e) where the original purposes, in whole or in part, have, since they were laid down:

(i) been adequately provided for by other means; or

(ii) ceased, as being useless or harmful to the community; or

(iii) ceased to be, in law, charitable; or

(iv) ceased in any other way to provide a suitable and effective method of using the property available by virtue of the trust, regard being had to the spirit of the trust.

Meaning and effect of Section 92

  • The trust must be an express or constructive trust created for public charitable or religious purposes.
  • The section applies where breach is alleged or Court directions are considered necessary for administration of the trust.
  • Two or more persons having an interest in the trust require leave of the Court before instituting a Section 92 suit.
  • The available decrees include removal or appointment of trustees, vesting or recovery of trust property, accounts and inquiries, allocation of trust property, authorized dealings with property, settlement of a scheme and other appropriate relief.
  • Sub-section (3) gives the Court statutory cy-pres power where the original purposes have been fulfilled, become impossible, inadequate, unsuitable or otherwise fall within the listed circumstances.

State-Specific Notes

Uttar Pradesh: U.P. Act No. 24 of 1954 inserts clause (bb) after clause (b) of Section 92(1), permitting relief for delivery of possession of trust property against a person who has ceased to be trustee or has been removed. This State amendment should be read with the later central clause (cc), inserted by Act 66 of 1956.
Bihar: The central CPC publication carries a State-amendment note that Section 92 does not apply to religious trusts in Bihar, referring to Bihar Act 1 of 1951. For a Bihar matter, the applicable Bihar religious-trust legislation and subsequent amendments should be checked directly.

Official CPC Reference

For the authoritative central text, see the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 on India Code.