# M. V. RAMASUBBJER AND OTHERS v. MANICKA NARASIMHACHARI AND OTHERS

- **Citation:** [1979] 2 S.C.R. 1177
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1979-01-30
- **Bench:** P. N. SmNGIIAL, p. · S. KArLASAM
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/m-v-ramasubbjer-and-others-v-manicka-narasimhachari-and-others-7482
- **Pages:** 7

## Headnote

Trusts Act-Ss. 49, 51 and 52-Scope of-Managing Trustee
purchased
property for the trust sold it to his son for lesser price than offered by othersSale if valid-Duty of trustee.
A
B
Pleintiffi and defendants \Vere descendants of a common ancestor who was
the founder of a trust. Defendani no. 1, at the relevant time, was the managing trustee of the trust.
On partition and sale of family properties a house,
C
which was the suit property, was purchased for the
trust.
Soon thereafter
defendant no. 1 sold it to his son.
Before the sale, however, the tenant of lhe
house who was a man of substance, offered a much higher price than what was
paid by the son but the defendant sold it to his son.
In the plaintiffs' suit challenging sale of the trust property to the managing
trustee's son for a lesser consideration the defendant claimed that the property
D
had to be sold because his son who was the owner of adjacent property raised
a dispute claiming easementary rights over the property.
The suit was decreed by the trial court but on appeal the High Court held
that the consideration was adequate and fair, that the sale was bona fide and
that no ulterior motive could be attributed to the defendant .no. 1 in the sale.
The High Court, therefore, dismissed the suit.
E
Allowing appeal,
1-~LD : (a) The sale had to be viewed with suspicion The High
C0urt
committed an error of law in ignoring important aspects of law which bad a
direct bearing on the controversy before it.
[ll8l1\]
(b) It is well recognised that a person in a fiduciary position like a trustee
F
is not entitled to make a profit for himself or a
member of his family.
I:-Ic
is not allowed to put himself in a position in which a conflict may arise between
his duty as a trustee and his personal interest.
[1180E]
( c) The control of the trustee's discretionary power prescribed by s. 49 of
the Trusts Act and the prohibition contained in s. 51 that the trustee may not
use or deal with the trust property for his own profit or for any other purpose
G
unconnected with the trust and the equally important prohibition in s. 52 that
the trustee may not directly or indirectly buy the .trust property on his own
account or as an agent for a third person, cast a heavy responsibility upon hin1
in the matter of discharge of his duties as
trustee.
The rule prescribed by
these sections connot be evaded by making a sale in the name of the trustee's
partner or son, for that would, in fact and substance, indirectly benefit the
trustee.
[11 BOF-G]
H
(d) Where a trustee makes the sale of a property belonging to the trust,
without any compc1Iing reason in favour
of his son,
without obtaining the
1178
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 1979] 2 S.C.R.
A
permission of the court concerned, it is the duty of the court
to examine
w-hether the trustee has acted rCasonably and in good faith or whether he bas
committed a breach of the trust by benefiting himself from the transaction in
::in indirect n1anner.
f 1180H1
B
c
(i) In the instant case defendant no. 1 was the tiustee of the property. It
was his duty to be faithful to the trust and execute it with reasonable diligence
Ill the manner in which an ordinary prudent man of business would conduct
his own affairs. He could not occasion any loss to the trust and it was his duty
to sell the property, if that was so necessary to sell, to the best advantage of
the trust.
fl l 80D]
(ii) l'he I-ligh Court was wrong in blaming the plaintiffs _that they had
brought the suit on account of persona] grouse and spite. Assuming that they
\Vere so actuated, their action was eminently
for the
advantage of the tru.o;.t
created by their ancestor in which they had a substantial and direct interest.
[l 18lD]
(iii) Defendant no. 1 was not able to explain how the sale was beneficial
to the trust. Income by way of rent which the property was fetching Was fa!:'
more than interest which the sale proceeds fetched when they were invested in
fixed deposits in a Bank. He was therefore unable to explain h

## Text

.Ji. ...
J .,
1177
M. V. RAMASUBBJER AND OTHERS
v.
MANICKA NARASIMHACHARI AND OTHERS
January 30, 1979
[P. N. SmNGIIAL AND p. · S. KArLASAM, JJ.]
Trusts Act-Ss. 49, 51 and 52-Scope of-Managing Trustee
purchased
property for the trust sold it to his son for lesser price than offered by othersSale if valid-Duty of trustee.
A
B
Pleintiffi and defendants \Vere descendants of a common ancestor who was
the founder of a trust. Defendani no. 1, at the relevant time, was the managing trustee of the trust.
On partition and sale of family properties a house,
C
which was the suit property, was purchased for the
trust.
Soon thereafter
defendant no. 1 sold it to his son.
Before the sale, however, the tenant of lhe
house who was a man of substance, offered a much higher price than what was
paid by the son but the defendant sold it to his son.
In the plaintiffs' suit challenging sale of the trust property to the managing
trustee's son for a lesser consideration the defendant claimed that the property
D
had to be sold because his son who was the owner of adjacent property raised
a dispute claiming easementary rights over the property.
The suit was decreed by the trial court but on appeal the High Court held
that the consideration was adequate and fair, that the sale was bona fide and
that no ulterior motive could be attributed to the defendant .no. 1 in the sale.
The High Court, therefore, dismissed the suit.
E
Allowing appeal,
1-~LD : (a) The sale had to be viewed with suspicion The High
C0urt
committed an error of law in ignoring important aspects of law which bad a
direct bearing on the controversy before it.
[ll8l1\]
(b) It is well recognised that a person in a fiduciary position like a trustee
F
is not entitled to make a profit for himself or a
member of his family.
I:-Ic
is not allowed to put himself in a position in which a conflict may arise between
his duty as a trustee and his personal interest.
[1180E]
( c) The control of the trustee's discretionary power prescribed by s. 49 of
the Trusts Act and the prohibition contained in s. 51 that the trustee may not
use or deal with the trust property for his own profit or for any other purpose
G
unconnected with the trust and the equally important prohibition in s. 52 that
the trustee may not directly or indirectly buy the .trust property on his own
account or as an agent for a third person, cast a heavy responsibility upon hin1
in the matter of discharge of his duties as
trustee.
The rule prescribed by
these sections connot be evaded by making a sale in the name of the trustee's
partner or son, for that would, in fact and substance, indirectly benefit the
trustee.
[11 BOF-G]
H
(d) Where a trustee makes the sale of a property belonging to the trust,
without any compc1Iing reason in favour
of his son,
without obtaining the
1178
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 1979] 2 S.C.R.
A
permission of the court concerned, it is the duty of the court
to examine
w-hether the trustee has acted rCasonably and in good faith or whether he bas
committed a breach of the trust by benefiting himself from the transaction in
::in indirect n1anner.
f 1180H1
B
c
(i) In the instant case defendant no. 1 was the tiustee of the property. It
was his duty to be faithful to the trust and execute it with reasonable diligence
Ill the manner in which an ordinary prudent man of business would conduct
his own affairs. He could not occasion any loss to the trust and it was his duty
to sell the property, if that was so necessary to sell, to the best advantage of
the trust.
fl l 80D]
(ii) l'he I-ligh Court was wrong in blaming the plaintiffs _that they had
brought the suit on account of persona] grouse and spite. Assuming that they
\Vere so actuated, their action was eminently
for the
advantage of the tru.o;.t
created by their ancestor in which they had a substantial and direct interest.
[l 18lD]
(iii) Defendant no. 1 was not able to explain how the sale was beneficial
to the trust. Income by way of rent which the property was fetching Was fa!:'
more than interest which the sale proceeds fetched when they were invested in
fixed deposits in a Bank. He was therefore unable to explain how he acted as
D
a rru:1n of cndinary prudence in slashing do\vn the income of the trn'i+ by mating the rn!e.
[l 181GJ
(iv) When defendant no. 1 sold the trust property to his son at a le1Mer
price than was otherwise available, he did not act in accordance with law in
the discharge of his fiduciary relationship with the trust.
He_ sold the property
to his son in disregard of his statutory duty which no man of ordinary pruE
denoe would tave done.
[ll82C]
(v) Assuming that defendant no. 1 made a gesture of goodwill in favour
of the trust when he allowed the sale of the family property to the
trust, he
could not possibly absolve himself from what he did in selling it off to his
&on at a lesser price than was offered by another person.
[ 1l82F]
-"-,
(vi) Assuming that there was sume diffi.:ulty in respect of rights of easement
F
between the trust and the defendant's son who was the immediate neighbour
of the property, that could have been a lever in the hands of the trustee to
make a bargain for higher consideration from his son . who was equally interested in the property.
A man of prudence would not have sold his property
for a considerably lesser amount than that offered to him by another person
and agreed to sell it just becauSc a co-sharer was causing trouble and offering
a few lesser price.
fll83A-Bl
G
H
CtvIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil
Appeal
No. 1584
of
1969.
Appeal from the Judgment and Decree dated 20-2-1969 of the
Madras High Court in Appeal No. 104 of 1963.
G. L. Sanghi and Vineet Kumar for the Appellants.
Vepa P. Sarathy and Mrs. S.
Gopalakrishnan for
Respondent
No. I.
(
•
•
)
(
RAMASUBBIER V. NARASIMHACHARI (Shing/uil, J.)
1179
K. Jaypram for Respondents 2-5.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
SHINGHA L, J .-This appeal by a certificate of the Madras High
Court is directed against its judgment and decree dated February 20,
1969.
One Manikka Sankaranarayana Iyer, father of defendants 1 and
3 and grandfather of plaintiffs 1 to 5 and defendants 2, 4 and 5 and
father-in-law of plaintiff No. 6 constituted an Annadanam Trust and
he and his sons executed a registered deed of settlement for
that
purpose on June 3, 1908.
By that document Sankaranarayana Iyer
I became the first trustee for life, and it wa& provided that after him
the senior-most member would be the trustee, by turns.
Sankara- .
narayana died and defendant No. 1 became the managing trustee of
the
trust.
There was a suit for partition of the family properties
including house No. 48A, and it was settled by a compromise under
which a preliminary decree dated September 12, 1956 was drawn up
for the sale of the properties amongst the members of the family.
Defendant No. 1 purchased the suit property for Rs. 21,500/- for
the aforesaid frust on April 19, 1959.
A final decree was drawn
up on November 29, 19"59 in which house No. 48A was shown as
the property of the trust.
Defendant No. 1 however sold that property soon after, to his son defendant No. 2 on July 14, 1960, for
Rs. 25,000/- under sale deed Ex. B. 13.
Chithambaram
Chettiar
(P.W. 2), who was a tenant of that property from 1949 onwanjs,
came to know of the intended sale and sent a registered notice
to
defendant No. 1 cin July 21, 1960, offering to
purchase it for
Rs. 35,000/-.
Defendant No. 1 however we.nt ahead with the sale
of the property to his son and registered the sale deed on July 22,
1960.
The plaintiffs thereupon filed the present suit on September
15, 1%0, challenging that' sale and asking for its restorati.on to the
trust.
The defendants resisted the claim in the suit on the ground
that the sale price was fair and adequate and that the sale had to be
made because of the disputes which had arisen between the second
defendant as the owner of the adjacent house and the trust in regard
to the ~asementary rights of drainage, light and air etc.
The suit
was decreed by the Subordinate Judge of Madurai on September 10,
1962.
The High Court of Madras however allowed
the appeal
against that judgment and decree and dismissed the suit with costs
of both the courts holding that Rs. 25,000/- was "quite adequate and
fair" price for the suit proper-ty and that defendant No. 1 acted w'th
"perfect bona tides and no ulterior motive can be attributed to him."
That is why the plaintiffs have come up in appeal to this Court.
'
A
B
c
D
E
F
G
H
A
B
c
D
E
F
H
I I 8 0
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
11979] 2 S.C.R.
It is not indisputc before us thai the Indian Trusts Act, 1882,
hereinafter referred to as the Act, applied to the trust in question
and that it was necessary for the plaintiffs to prove that defendant
No. 1 did not exercise his discretionary power of selling the suit
property "reasonably and in good faith" and that he indirectly purchased it for himself, in the name of his son (defendant No. 2), within
the meaning of section 49 and 52 of the Act.
There is some controversy on the question
whether defendant
No. 1 made an outright purchase of the suit property for and
on
behalf of the trust for Rs. 21 ,500/- on April 19, 1959, or whether
he intended to purchase it for himself and then decided to pass it on I
to the trust, for defendants have led their evidence to show that the
property was allowed to be sold for Rs. 21,500/-, which was
less
than its market value, as it was meant for use by the trust and
that
defendant No. 1 was not acting honestly when he palmed of the property to his son soon after by the aforesaid sale deed Ex. B. 13 dated
July 14, 1960.
The fact however remains that defendant No. 1 was
the trustee of the property, and it was his duty to be faithful to the
trust and to execute it with reasonable diligence in the manner an
ordinary prudent man of business would conduct his own affairs.
He
could not therefore occasion any loss to the trust and it was his duty
to sell the property, if at .all that was necessary, to best advantage.
It has in fact been well recognised as an inflexible rule that a person
in a fiduciary position like a trustee is not entitled to make a profit
for himself or a member of his family.
It can also not be gainsaid
that he is not allowed to put himself in any such position in which a
conflict may arise between his duty and personal interest, and so
the control of the trustee's discretionary power prescribed by
seetion 49 of the Act and the prohibition contained in section 51 that
the trustee may not use or deal with the trust property for his
own
profit or for any other purpose unconnected with the trust, and the
equally important prohibition in section 52 that the trustee may not,
directly or indirectly, buy the trust property on his own account or
as an agent for a third person, cast a heavy responsibility upon him
in the matter of discharge of his duties as the trustee. It does not
require much argument to proceed to the inevitable further codclusion
that the rule prescribed by the aforesaid sections of the Act cannot
be evaded by making a sale in the name of the trustee's partner or
rnn, for that would. in fact arid substance, indirectly benefit the trustee.
Where therefore a trustee makes the sale of a property belonging to
the trust, without any compelling reason, in favour
of
his
son,
without obtaining the permission of the court concerned, it
is
the
duty of the court, in which the sale is challenged, to examine whether
'
(
•
• •
)
•
RAMASUBBIER V. NARASIMHACHARI (Shinghal, J.)
1181
the trustee has acted reasonably and in good faith or whether he has
committed a breach of the trust by benefitting himself from the transaction in an indirect manner.
The sale in question has therefore to
be viewed with suspicion and the High Court committed an error of
law in ignoring this important aspect of the law although it had a
direct bearing on the controversy before it:
The High Court in fact proceeded to examine the case
on the
assumption that the plaintiffs had instituted the suit not so much out
of a genuine desire to redress an"y wrong done to the trust, as out of
"ulterior motives and ill-will against the first and second defendants."
r This shows that instead of examining the case
according
to the
.)(~iterian mentioned above, the High Court based its decision on an
extraneous consideration and blamed the plaintiffs for
raising the
suit on account of "personal grouse" and "personal spite". We have
~
not been referred to any evidence which could justify the High Court's
view that there was any such grouse or spite.
But even if it were
assumed for the sake of argument that the plaintiffs had any
such
motive for raising the suit, the fact remains that their
action
was
eminently one for the advantage of the trust which had been created
by their ancestor and in which they had a substantial and a direct
interest.
Some important facts stand out from the evidence on the record
which are directly in point.
The suit property belonged to the family
which had created the trust.
It was purchased by defendant No. 1,
in his capacity as
the trustee of the
Annandanam Trust for
Rs. 21,500/- on April 19, 1959, at a family sale.
It appears from
.~ the statement of defendant No. 2 that the property was capable
of,
or could fetch a rent of about Rs. 190/- per mensem, amounting to
Rs. 2,280/- per annum.
It has also been admitted that the sum of
•·Rs. 25,000/- was not utilised by the trustee (defendant No. 1) for
purchasing any other better property, but was invested in fixed deposit
with a bank at 3! per cent interest per annum.
That could
yield
an income of only Rs. 875/- per annum,
The trust therefore
lost
heavily in· the bargain. What is worse, defendant No. 1 has not been
able to explain how the sale could be said to be beneficial to the trust
and how he could possibly contend that he acted as a man of ordinary prudence in slashing down the income of the trust by making
the sale .
A
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The further fact that stands out from the evidence on the record
H
is that when Chithambaram Chettiar (P.W. 2), who was a tenant in
the suit property from 1949 onwards, learnt about the intended sale,
A
B
c
D
1182
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1979] 2 S.C.R.
he sent a notice to defendants Nos. 1 and 3 offering to purchase it
for Rs. 35,000/-. That notice was issued on July 21, 1960.
The
receipt of the notice has been admitted by defendant No. 1 in his
statement in the trial ·court, and he has further admitted that Chithambaram Chettiar offered to purchase the property for
Rs. 35,000/-
and that he sold it to his son for Rs. 25,000/- without even informing
him that he had received the offer of Rs. 35,000/-. Defendant No. 1
in fact proceeded to register the sale deed of the property in favour
cf :.
~,0!1, the second defendant, on July 22, 1960.
It is therefore
quite clear that he did not care to act in accordance with the law in
the discharge of his fiduciary relationship with the trust and executed
the sale deed in his son's favour in disregard. of his statuto~ duty,
)
for no man of ordmary prudence would possibly have sold his pro-_,~
perty for Rs. 25,000/- when he had an offer of Rs. 35,000/-. That
offer could not be said to be from a man of no substance because
Chithambaram Chettiar (P.W. 2) who made it, was known to the.
defendants and he has stated that he was a man of means and was
worth rupees four lakhs. It may be that the son-in-law of plaintiff.
No. 2 was employed in his shop, but that could not detract from the
basic fact that a much higher offer had been made by a man of subslance.
Iustead of examining the appeal with due regard to the aboveE
mentioned evidence, the High Court was obsessed by a consideration
of the evidence which had been led for the purpose of showing that
while defendant No. 1 had purchased the property for
himself on
April 19, 1959, for Rs. 21,500/-, he gave up that advantage in favour
-':lit-' of the trust.
The evidence on the point is not unequivocal, for it
may well be that defendant No. 1 did not want to obtain a sale deed
,J,
(
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F
in his own name for other reasons, but even if it were assumed that
he made a gesture of goodwill in favour of the trust on April 19,
1959, he could not possibly absolve himself from what he did in •
selling it off, after it had become the property of the trust, to his own
son a few months thereafter for Rs. 25,000/- when he had a genuine
offer of Rs. 35,000/-.
..
G
Another consideration which prevailed with the High Court in
setting aside the finding of fact of the trial court was that, according
to it, the evidence on the record· showed that some difficulties
had
cropped up after the property had been purchased as his son, defendant
No. 2, began to "give trouble" and that he resolved
that
H
trouble on the advice of his
family lawyer Shri
V. Rajagopala
Iyengar (D. W. 3) by selling the property to his son. This view was
obviously incorrect, for even it were assumed that there was some
4.
I
...
•
I •
• ' •
••
'°1
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RAMASUBB!ER v. NARASIMHACHARI (Shingfwl, J.)
I jgj
difficulty in respect of some common rights of easement, that could
A
well have been a lever in the hands of the trustee to make a bargain
for Rs. 35,000/- or more with his son who was equally interested in
those easementary rights.
A man of prudence would not have sold
his property for a considerably lesser amount than that offered to hini
by another person and agreed to sell it just because a co-sharer in
. g
the easementary right Was causing trouble and was offering a far
lesser price.
We have gone through the statement of V. Rajagopala Iyengar
(D. W. 3) on whose advice defendant No. 1 claims to have sold the
property for Rs. 25,000/-. He has admitted in his statement that
he had not even seen the suit property, and he· knew nothing about
C
the so called trouble in regard to the easementary rights between
defendant No; 1 and his son.
On the other hand, we find that he
was indebted to the family of defendants Nos. 1 and 2 and he did
not even care to asce1tain what rent the suit property was fetching
when he advised its sale for Rs. 25,000/- to the son of defendant
No. 1.
The High Court therefore did not even read the evidence
D
correctly while placing reliance on his test1mony.
For the reasons mentioned above, we have no doubt that
the
High Court did not examine the controversy in its proper legal perspective and with due regard to the salient facts wl1ich had been established by the evidence mi the record and it was not therefore justiE
fied in setting aside the finding of the trial court.
The appeal is allowed.
The impugned judgment and decree of
the High Court are set aside and the decree of the trial court is restored
with costs throughout.
P.B.R.
Appeal 111/owed.
19-119 SCI 79