Appointment and duties of Executive Officer

There shall be an Executive Officer for every Charitable or Religious institution or endowment to be appointed by the Government in the case of institutions and endowments having income of rupees one crore and above and by the Commissioner in the case of other institutions and endowments included in the lists published under clauses (a) and (b) of section 6. In respect of charitable or religious institutions or endowment having income of less than rupees two lakhs per annum, and included in the list published under clause (c) of section 6, it shall not be necessary to appoint an executive officer. The cadre of Executive Officers to be appointed under this section for the respective institutions on the basis of the income of the institution or endowment shall be as may be prescribed: Provided that, where there is no Executive Officer in respect of any Charitable or Religious Institution or Endowment, the trustee or the Chairman of the Board of Trustees or any employee of any Institution or Endowment where the income exceeds Rs.2 lakhs, but is less than Rs.25 lakhs per annum, duly authorised by the Commissioner in this behalf shall exercise the powers and perform the functions and discharge the duties of an Executive Officer: Provided further that it shall be competent for the Commissioner to appoint an Executive Officer to any institution having income of less than Rs.2 lakhs per annum if there are substantial immovable properties to the institution or if he is satisfied that such appointment is necessary in the interest of better administration of the institution or for any other reason to be recorded in writing: Provided also that, it shall be competent for the Commissioner to constitute such number of Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments as may be necessary, into a single group for the purpose of appointing an Executive Officer or any other employee to such group. (2) The number of Executive Officers in each grade shall be as may be prescribed by the Government from time to time and the Commissioner shall be the appointing authority for the Executive Officer of Grades I, II and III: Provided that forty percentum of vacancies in third grade Executive Officers posts and twenty percentum of the vacancies in other two grades of Executive Officers shall be filled by the employees belonging to the institutions or endowments of prescribed grade: Provided further that it shall be competent for the Government to appoint a Regional Joint Commissioner as an Executive Officer to any institution and it shall be competent for the Commissioner to appoint a Deputy Commissioner or an Assistant Commissioner as an Executive Officer to any institution basing on the annual income of such institution. (3) The Executive Officer appointed and exercising the powers and discharging the duties shall be a person professing Hindu religion and shall cease to exercise those powers and discharge those duties when he ceases to profess that religion- (a) The Executive Officer appointed under this section shall be responsible for carrying out all lawful directions issued by such trustee, from time to time; (b) The Executive Officer, shall, subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by the Government,— (i) be responsible for the proper maintenance and custody of all the records, accounts and other documents and of all the jewels, valuables, money, funds and other properties of the institution or endowment; (ii) arrange for the proper collection of income and for incurring of expenditure; (iii) sue or be sued in the name of the institution or endowment in all legal proceedings: Provided that any legal proceedings pending immediately before the commencement of this Act, by or against an institution or endowment in which any person other than an Executive Officer is suing or being sued shall not be affected; (iv) deposit of money received by the institution or endowment in such bank or treasury as may be prescribed (v) have power in cases of emergency to direct the execution of any work or the doing of any act which is provided for in the budget for the year or the immediate execution or the doing of which is in his opinion necessary for the preservation of the properties of the institution or endowment or for the service or safety of pilgrims resorting thereto and to direct that the expenses of executing such work or the doing of such work or the doing of such act shall be paid from the funds of the institution or endowment: Provided that the Executive Officer shall report forthwith to the trustee any action taken by him under this sub-clause and the reasons therefor and obtain approval; (c) The Executive Officer shall, with the prior approval of the trustee, institute any legal proceedings in the name of the institution or endowment or defend any such legal proceeding; (d) The Executive Officer appointed under this section shall be the employee of the Government and the conditions of his service shall be such as may be determined by the Government. The salary, allowances, pension and other remuneration of the Executive Officer shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the State and later recovered from the Endowment Administrative Fund; (e) It shall be the duty of the Executive Officer of every Religious or Charitable Institution to foster faith, devotion and ethical conduct in the society, by facilitating formation of a Bhaktha Samajam attached to each Institution, on voluntary basis, consisting of the devotees thereof in order to periodically organize Bhajans, Religious discourses, devotional and other Religious programmes such as Nagara Sankeertans etc., appropriate to the Custom, Usage, Tradition and Sampradayams of the Institution concerned.