Chapter I PRELIMINARY

1. (1) This Act may be called the 1[Maharashtra Public Trusts Act.] 2[(2) it shall extend to the whole of the 3[State of Maharashtra.]
2. (3) This Act shall come into force at once; but the provisions thereof shall apply to a public trust or any class of public trusts on the dates specified in the notification under sub-section (4).
3. (4) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify the date on which the provisions of this Act shall apply to any public trust or any 4[class of public trusts; and different dates may be specified for such trusts in different areas]: Provided that the State Government may also by a like notification direct that from the date specified therein any public trust or class of public trusts shall be exempt 5[from all or any of the provisions of this Act, subject to such conditions as may be specified in the notification]: Provided further that before a notification of such application or exemption is published a draft thereof shall be published in the Official Gazette and in such other manner as may be prescribed for the information of persons likely to be affected thereby together with a notice specifying the date on or before which any objections or suggestions shall be received and the date on or after which the draft shall be taken into consideration.

In this Act unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,- 1* * * *

1. (2) "Assistant Charity Commissioner" means an Assistant Charity Commissioner appointed under section 5; 2[(2A) "beneficiary" means any person entitled to any of the benefit as per the objects of the trust explained in the trust deed or the scheme made as per this Act and constitution of the trust and no other person;].
2. (3) "Charity Commissioner" means the Charity Commissioner appointed under section 3 ; 3[(4) "Court" means the High Court of Judicature at Bombay;];
3. (5) "Deputy Charity Commissioner" means the Deputy Charity Commissioner appointed under section 5 ; 4[(5A) "Director of Accounts" and "Assistant Director of Accounts" means respectively the Director of Accounts and Assistant Director of Accounts appointed under section 6 of this Act;]
4. (6) "Hindu" includes Jain, Buddhist and Sikh ;
5. (7) "Inspector" means an Inspector appointed under section 6 ; 5[(7A) "instrument of trust" means the instrument by which the trust is created by the author of the trust 6[and includes any scheme framed by a competent authority or any memorandum of association and rules and regulations of a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (XXI of 1860), in its application to the State of Maharashtra; (7B) "Joint Charity Commissioner" means a Joint Charity Commissioner appointed under section 3A;]
6. (8) "manager" means any person (other than a trustee) who for the time being either alone or in association with some other person or persons administers the trust property of any public trust and includes-
   • (a) in the case of a math, the head of such math,
   • (b) in the case of a wakf, a mutawalli of such wakf,
   • (c) in the case of a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (XXI of 1860), its governing body, 7[whether or not the property of the society is vested in a trustee] ;
7. (9) "math" means an institution for the promotion of the Hindu religion presided over by a person whose duty it is to engage himself in imparting religious instruction or rendering spiritual service to a body of disciples or who exercises or claims to exercise headship over such a body and includes places of religious worship or instruction which are appurtenant to the institution ;
8. (10) "person having interest" 8[includes]-
   • (a) in the case of a temple, person who is entitled to attend at or is in the habit of attending the performance of worship or service in the temple, or who is entitled to partake or is in that habit of partaking in the distribution of gifts thereof,
   • (b) in the case of a math, a disciple of the math or a person of the religious persuasion to which the math belongs,
   • (c) in the case of a wakf, a person who is entitled to receive any pecuniary or other benefit from the wakf and includes a person who has right to worship or to perform any religious rite in a mosque, idgah, imambara, dargah, maqbara or other religious institution connected with the wakf or participate in any religious or charitable institution under the wakf,
   • (d) in the case of a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (XXI of 1860), any member of such society, and
   • (e) in the case of any other public trust, 9[any trustee or beneficiary],
9. (11) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules ;
10. (12) "public securities" means-
    • (a) Securities of the Central Government or any State Governments,
    • (b) Stocks, debentures or shares in Railway or other companies, the interest or dividend on which has been guaranteed by the Central or any State Government,br
    • (c) Debentures or other securities for money issued by or on behalf of any local authority in exercise of the powers conferred by an Act of the Central or State Legislature,
    • (d) a security expressly authorised by an order which the State Government makes in this behalf ;
11. (13) "public trust" means an express or constructive trust for either a public religious or charitable purpose or both and includes a temple, a math, a wakf, 10[church, synagogue, agiary or other place of public religious worship] 11[a dharmada] or any other religious or charitable endowment and a society formed either for a religious or charitable purpose or for both and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (XXI of 1860) ;
12. (14) "region" or "sub-region" means the areas designated as such and for which a Public Trusts Registration Office has been established under this Act ;
13. (15) "rules" means rules made under this Act ; 12* * * * * * *
14. (17) "Temple" means a place by whatever designation known and used as a place of public religious worship and dedicated to or for the benefit of or used as of right by the Hindu community or any section thereof as a place of public religious worship ;
15. (18) "trustee" means a person in whom either alone or in association with other persons, the trust property is vested and includes a manager;
16. (19) "wakf" means a permanent dedication by a person professing Islam of any moveable or immoveable property for any purpose recognised by the 13[Muslim law] as pious, religious or charitable and includes a wakf by user 14[and grants (including mashrut-ul-khidmat) for any purpose recognised by the Muslim law as pious, religious or charitable and a wakf-alal-aulad to the extent to which the property is dedicated for any purpose so recognised; but does not include a wakf such as is described in section 3 of the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act 1913 (VI of 1913). Under which any benefit is for the time being claimable for himself by the person by whom the wakf was created or by any member of his family or descendants ;
17. (20) words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (II of 1882), shall have the meaning assigned to them in that Act.

[Construction of certain references in the Act in their application to that part of Mysore to which the Act extends]. Deleted by Bom. 6 of 1960, s. 5.