'Misconceived': Gujarat High Court Rejects PIL Against Alleged Illegal Operation Of Trust From Sabarmati Ashram Premises

The Gujarat High Court dismissed a PIL petition seeking to stop the alleged illegal operation of a trust from the premises of Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati, observing that no roving inquiry can be conducted on an apprehension without there being any substance shown to the court. 

The PIL moved by an advocate claimed that one Manav Sadhna Trust being operated by one of the Trustee of Original Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust, within the Gandhi Ashram precincts has resulted in deprivation of donations fund in the name of Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust. It claimed that Manav Sadhna Trust is doing activities sitting in the Gandhi Ashram Ashram which is illegal, bad and void and that the trust could not have been registered by the Office of Charity Commissioner, Gujarat at the address of the Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust. The plea sought a direction to the respondent Manav Sadhna trust to stop operating from Gandhi Ashram premises. 

A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi in its order noted that during the hearing the counsel for the petitioner had submitted that "hundreds of crores of rupees from the government exchequer have been misutilized in the process of rehabilitation/relocation of families from the Gandhi Ashram".

"The attention of the Court is invited to the averments made in the writ petition and a chart appended thereto to submit that the persons mentioned therein to whom benefits have been granted were either encroachers or unauthorized occupants. The submission is that an inquiry is required to be made by this Court in the manner in which the rehabilitation and relocation process has been completed under the directions issued by this Court. However, suffice it to note that none of the alleged illegal occupants or encroachers are impleaded in the writ petition. The averments made in the writ petition without impleading the beneficiaries cannot be appreciated,"the court said.

It further noted that the prayers made in the writ petition are essentially pertaining to the alleged illegal activities of Manav Sadhna Trust within the precincts of Harijan Ashram Trust, for which, the court said that the appropriate remedy is for the petitioner to approach the Charity Commissioner.

"In any case, on the apprehensions raised by the petitioner without any substance brought before us, no roving inquiry can be conducted. The writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed being misconceived," the court said. 

Case title: DEVRAJBHAI TULSIBHAI PATEL Versus STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS

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