Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust Mismanagement
(Chapter 3)
Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust has exposed something that every lawyer in India knows. Inadequacy of laws relating to charities and NGOs that are noncommercial entities.
Eight persons have been arrested in Ayodhya. About ₹90 lakh has been recovered. Champat Rai and Anil Mishra have resigned. There is no confirmation of resignations even though media is propagating about it for days. But this is linked to the legal problems behind the creation of the trust.
Legacy Problem
India’s trust and society laws are essentially the Societies Registration Act of 1860 and the Indian Trusts Act of 1882. Both were designed by a colonial administration that wanted fluid, unaccountable structures for native charitable activity while keeping real power with the state. The colonial government never imagined these structures would one day hold hundreds of crores in public donations with zero government oversight and near impossible removal of trustees.
The result is that every major religious endowment, every large NGO, every political foundation operates in a legal vacuum where the founders or trustees become permanently sovereign. FCRA was added later to track foreign money. But domestic donations flowing into trusts remain almost entirely outside any accountability framework. No mandatory audit disclosure, no regulatory oversight, no easy removal mechanism, and no public reporting requirement that has teeth.
Ram Janmabhoomi is the most visible case but not the only one. Dozens of large temple trusts, ashrams, and religious organizations across India operate the same way. The money is public in the sense that it comes from millions of ordinary devotees. The governance is private in the sense that a handful of trustees are accountable to nobody until a court orders otherwise.
Colonial laws created for manipulation, never updated because those in power find the manipulation useful, periodically exploding into public scandal when the scale becomes impossible to ignore. That gave opportunity to colonial masters to take over the trust management under laws like Religious Endowment Act. The temples in the south India were annexed under that law and the present day State Governments are controlling the management of these Temples.
The trend to takeover temple by Governments through state laws continued after independence. The lure to control huge finds was also huge. In a case arising from Rajasthan, Supreme Court1 upheld that management of funds of a temple is a secular activity on which the State Legislature could pass law for its management. It opened floodgates of state control of temples.
There is another device which is used by many entities. It is the device of a registered society.
Trust Law
The central government created the Ram Janmabhoomi trust with one rupee and then permanently lost all say over it. That is the standard trust law structure in India and it was never designed for an institution handling hundreds of crores of public donations annually. It was designed for family trusts and charitable endowments of modest scale. This is the position of Trust Act, 1882. But Janmabhoomi Trust is not governed by that law. Act of 1882 does not apply to religious and charitable trusts.
Many states have their own laws that govern charitable and religious trust. The Charity Commissioner under such state laws, acts as an oversight on their activities in a limited way. Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have no such law. Therefore, the Janmabhoomi Trust is a purely contractual matter among the Trustees. The Government would have some right if any of it is reserved in its favour but we do not know. The deed is a secret. Yes. It is not available to public. This make it difficult to predict the course of action o the Central Government under the trust deed.
Trust deed is registered in book 4 of Registrar under Registration Act and that pertains to ‘Other’ documents and it is not public. Only a specific beneficiary can ask to inspect it and by implication general public is excluded.
Society
There is a common perception that a registered society is like a corporation but that is a myth. Legal position is completely different.
In a society, governing body is given a legal power somewhat distinct from that of the society itself. The General body can only change the governing body when they get an opportunity to do it. Till that time the Governing body decides all the matters. The right to sue is also reserved to governing body. On the basis of these features the Supreme Court decided2 that the provisions of Societies Registration Act, 1860 do not establish the main essential characteristic of a corporation aggregate, namely, that of an intention to incorporate the society.
This brings us to another alternative but it has its own problems.
Alternate Structure
A Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG) is a specific type of non-profit organization in India. It is designed for entities that do not aim to distribute profits among members but rather focus on promoting a charitable or social cause. Such a company enjoys the privileges and is subject to the obligations of a limited company. Liability of its contributors or shareholders is limited to the amount they initially contributed.
But here is a catch. Such a company can only be formed with the licence from Central Government. The licence can be revoked if the company contravenes Section 83 requirements/conditions or conducts its affairs fraudulently or in a way that violates its objects or prejudices public interest. Such company cannot freely alter its memorandum or articles without Central Government approval, and it can convert to another kind of company only on prescribed conditions.
Practical Problem
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS is the largest voluntary non-government organization or NGO in the world. There is no empirical data to support that statement but it is a matter of fact that an RSS volunteer can be found in every town and village of India. Yet it is an unregistered organization. It has no bank account and no corporate structure. This fact is admitted publically by RSS Chief, Mohan Bhagwat.4
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is another organization that was pursuing the Ram Janmabhoomi movement alongwith RSS for decades. Champat Rai, Anil Mishra and Gopal Rao, all involved in management of temple are from these organization where they have volunteered for decades. It is not a reward but entrustment of a responsibility to those who pursued the cause with passion. But it appears these people thought that it was their privilege.
The BJP is in Government today in the State as well as Center but it may not be there, tomorrow. BJP has been against the state control of temples in principle. This left it in a precarious position. It hurriedly formed a trust which not governed by any regulatory framework and places it at the mercy of judiciary which is an institution losing it credibility due to extreme delays. It is unable to dispose of the disputes for decades.
So what is brewing?
The Intelligence
The intelligence institutions of Governments are very deep. Every single house in the country is under police monitoring for any unusual activity. It is not surveillance but keeping an eye open. The beat officer of police knows everything about you. How else do you think that tenants, making bombs are caught in their homes by police?
Then there is LIU or Local Intelligence Unit. He is the same corrupt police officer who came for your passport verification and had tea and did not leave without a cash dole out of Rs.500/- On top of it there are intelligence officers of Central Government posted in every city if not subdivision of each city.
All these officers did not notice that officials of Ram Janmabhoomi Trust have become rich overnight and are financing others and buying houses, properties, expensive cars and spending lavishly?
I do not think so. But if you did not know about the network of intelligence, there is a reason. Intelligence remained stored. It does not serve as a cause for action. That comes from elsewhere. Intelligence merely keeps Government aware of what is going to come in the future.
My guess is that plan is already in motion. The operation cleanser has begun.
Bottom Line
Ram Mandir was a movement of RSS and VHP. They pursued it for decades. They were given the temple to run. They could not run it. But how does a government remove organizations whose entire identity is built on this movement, without destroying the very political coalition that brought the temple into existence?
It could not act in the name of reform. It had no authority to pass administrative order. Political negotiation was out of question. The only lever that works is a criminal investigation that makes their position untenable from within.
The intelligence network had the file. Three layers of surveillance watched temple officials buy properties, finance fleets, and live beyond their means in plain sight. Nobody acted. Not because they did not know. Because the knowledge was being stored for a right moment.
Media5 leaked the story first. It was not a newspaper from Uttar Pradesh much less from Ayodhya or Lucknow. News report made Yogi pull the drawer open. The SIT was constituted. Arrests followed. Resignations followed the arrests within the same hour. And the new trustees are not being nominated by RSS or VHP officially. The pipeline is cut. Quietly. Permanently. Without a single public confrontation with the organizations that built the movement.
The BJP keeps the temple. Yogi keeps the credit. The RSS and VHP cannot complain publicly without admitting the theft happened entirely on their watch.
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