MUMBAI: Bombay excessive court docket on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Osho Worldwide Basis and upheld, as properly reasoned and legally legitimate, a Dec 2023 order of a joint charity commissioner denying the Belief permission to promote part of their Koregaon park land for ₹ 107 crore.
The Basis had in 2020 sought sanction for alienation of its Koregaon Park plot in Pune , in favour of 1 Rajivnayan Rahulkumar Bajaj and Rishab Household Belief by Rajivnayan Rahulkumar Bajaj, at the price of Rs.107 crore.
The HC bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and F P Pooniwalla stated the Joint Charity Commissioner has come to a conclusion that the petitioner had not made out a real and compelling necessity to alienate its worthwhile property located at a first-rate location at Pune and thus would require no interference.
The Basis had cited the Covid -19 pandemic and Ukrainian battle as causes too, together with monetary crunch, however the JCC discovered it unacceptable and noticed there was no try to hunt financial institution loans or donations from its massive variety of rich disciples. The JCC noticed that “trustees had diverted funds to a number of personal Ltd corporations to indicate losses incurred’’ by the Basis and directed {that a} particular audit be carried out of the OIF for 2005 to 2023 by a staff of two particular auditors, the HC famous in its judgment
The petition by the Basis by its trustee Mukesh Sarda stated after the refusal Rs 50 crore obtained by it as earnest cash from the Bajaj and Rishab Household was refunded on Dec 15, 2023.
The Basis challenged the Jt CC’s energy to order such an audit. The HC nevertheless stated the Part 33 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act makes it clear that the Charity Commissioner wields an authority and management on the accounts of a public charitable belief, together with to order a particular audit every time a particular audit is critical.
For the reason that Act confers powers on the CC, he’s sure to train it when wanted, stated the HC rejecting the Basis’s submission that the CC had no energy to order a particular audit within the case.
In 2008 for higher administration one Abhilasha Basis was amalgamated with Osho Worldwide Basis and received inside its fold a 2.4 acre plot with a bungalow at Koregaon park.
In April 2020 to Sept 2020 the Basis stated it earned Rs 28 lakh however bills have been over Rs 3 crore and to satisfy the monetary troubles determined to promote the property and positioned advertisements within the newspaper earlier than getting into in an MOU with RR Bajaj on Dec 8, 2020.
Osho’s disciples opposed the proposed sale and despatched emails to the workplace of the Charity Commissioner and 26 have been joined as events within the proceedings.
One disciple known as Swami Premgeet or Yogesh Thakkar filed three replies contending that he Basis was “recurring’’ in searching for to alienate the belief properties and proposed sale was valued “very low’’.
A Public Belief can promote its property if a compelling necessity case is made out. On this case the Jt CC got down to see if a real case was made out by the Basis to promote the two.4 acre plot at Koregaon park with the bungalow and whether or not the value was proper. He ordered a particular audit and noticed that “ostensible money crunch was being portrayed, to promote the dear belief property.’’
Justices Kulkarni and Pooniwalla within the 50-page reasoned judgment stated, “We can also observe that the raison d’etre to order such particular audit itself was borne out by the fabric on file of the proceedings earlier than the CC when a reference is made to great amount of documentary in addition to oral proof, which fashioned a part of the proceedings, for the JCC to get apprehensive, disturbed and fairly alarmed, in order to kind an opinion of a particular audit being required to be ordered. Furthermore, such materials had fashioned a part of the enquiry within the proceedings of which the petitioner had ample discover as a selected plea was raised by the objectors, demanding a forensic audit, as there have been substantive allegations of enormous scale irregularities being resorted by the trustees on defalcation of the belief properties and funds.’’
The HC stated the JCC’s order and observations “are to the impact that the contentions of depletion of the corpus of the funds of the petitioner belief was not supported by the audit stories.’’
The Basis had in 2020 sought sanction for alienation of its Koregaon Park plot in Pune , in favour of 1 Rajivnayan Rahulkumar Bajaj and Rishab Household Belief by Rajivnayan Rahulkumar Bajaj, at the price of Rs.107 crore.
The HC bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and F P Pooniwalla stated the Joint Charity Commissioner has come to a conclusion that the petitioner had not made out a real and compelling necessity to alienate its worthwhile property located at a first-rate location at Pune and thus would require no interference.
The Basis had cited the Covid -19 pandemic and Ukrainian battle as causes too, together with monetary crunch, however the JCC discovered it unacceptable and noticed there was no try to hunt financial institution loans or donations from its massive variety of rich disciples. The JCC noticed that “trustees had diverted funds to a number of personal Ltd corporations to indicate losses incurred’’ by the Basis and directed {that a} particular audit be carried out of the OIF for 2005 to 2023 by a staff of two particular auditors, the HC famous in its judgment
The petition by the Basis by its trustee Mukesh Sarda stated after the refusal Rs 50 crore obtained by it as earnest cash from the Bajaj and Rishab Household was refunded on Dec 15, 2023.
The Basis challenged the Jt CC’s energy to order such an audit. The HC nevertheless stated the Part 33 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act makes it clear that the Charity Commissioner wields an authority and management on the accounts of a public charitable belief, together with to order a particular audit every time a particular audit is critical.
For the reason that Act confers powers on the CC, he’s sure to train it when wanted, stated the HC rejecting the Basis’s submission that the CC had no energy to order a particular audit within the case.
In 2008 for higher administration one Abhilasha Basis was amalgamated with Osho Worldwide Basis and received inside its fold a 2.4 acre plot with a bungalow at Koregaon park.
In April 2020 to Sept 2020 the Basis stated it earned Rs 28 lakh however bills have been over Rs 3 crore and to satisfy the monetary troubles determined to promote the property and positioned advertisements within the newspaper earlier than getting into in an MOU with RR Bajaj on Dec 8, 2020.
Osho’s disciples opposed the proposed sale and despatched emails to the workplace of the Charity Commissioner and 26 have been joined as events within the proceedings.
One disciple known as Swami Premgeet or Yogesh Thakkar filed three replies contending that he Basis was “recurring’’ in searching for to alienate the belief properties and proposed sale was valued “very low’’.
A Public Belief can promote its property if a compelling necessity case is made out. On this case the Jt CC got down to see if a real case was made out by the Basis to promote the two.4 acre plot at Koregaon park with the bungalow and whether or not the value was proper. He ordered a particular audit and noticed that “ostensible money crunch was being portrayed, to promote the dear belief property.’’
Justices Kulkarni and Pooniwalla within the 50-page reasoned judgment stated, “We can also observe that the raison d’etre to order such particular audit itself was borne out by the fabric on file of the proceedings earlier than the CC when a reference is made to great amount of documentary in addition to oral proof, which fashioned a part of the proceedings, for the JCC to get apprehensive, disturbed and fairly alarmed, in order to kind an opinion of a particular audit being required to be ordered. Furthermore, such materials had fashioned a part of the enquiry within the proceedings of which the petitioner had ample discover as a selected plea was raised by the objectors, demanding a forensic audit, as there have been substantive allegations of enormous scale irregularities being resorted by the trustees on defalcation of the belief properties and funds.’’
The HC stated the JCC’s order and observations “are to the impact that the contentions of depletion of the corpus of the funds of the petitioner belief was not supported by the audit stories.’’
