Calcutta High Court
Sri Sri Iswar Gopal Jew And Anr vs Anjana De on 24 September, 2025
Author: Arindam Mukherjee
Bench: Arindam Mukherjee
OD-3 ORDER SHEET
IA NO. GA/2/2025
IN
CS/88/2025
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION
SRI SRI ISWAR GOPAL JEW AND ANR.
VS
ANJANA DE
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE ARINDAM MUKHERJEE
Date: 24th September, 2025.
Appearance:
Mr. Abhrajit Mitra, Sr. Adv.(VC) Mr. Soumavo Ghosh, Adv.
Mr. Aritra Basu, Adv.
Mr. V. Chatterjee, Adv.
For plaintiffs/petitioners Mr. Biswajit Chatterjee, Adv.
Md. Sakir, Adv.
Ms. Sumitra Das, Adv.
For defendant The Court:- The suit relates to the management of a Trust by the name Sri Sri Iswar Gopal Jew being the plaintiff no.1 abovenamed. The plaintiff no.2 is the daughter of late Arun Kumar Seal who was the last manager of the said Trust and had died intestate on 16 th February, 2025 leaving behind his widow Mitali Seal and daughter Anuja Seal. It is to be 2 noted that the Anuja Seal is a challenged person and, as such, is represented by her mother Mitali Seal. The sole defendant is the only surviving trustee of the plaintiff no.1, the Trust.
It is the case of the plaintiffs that the Trust deed and the scheme subsequently framed by this Court a manager is to be appointed from amongst the trustees of the said Trust for management of the Trust and its properties. The manager is to actually administer the Trust and its properties, on behalf of the trustees, inter alia, by collecting rent and occupational charges from the lessees/tenants/occupants of the various properties of the said trust. Since 1984, Arun Kumar Seal was the manager and was regularly collecting the rent and occupational charges which are said to have been deposited in a dedicated bank account maintained for such purpose. The plaintiffs say that after the death of Arun Kumar Seal as per the provisions of the Trust Deed, a manager was required to be appointed within one month from the date of his death. However, no manager has yet been appointed as a consequence whereof the plaintiffs have approached this Court in view of the specific provisions contained in the Trust Deed and the scheme that on failure of the trustees to choose a manager, the appointment of the manager will be left open to the Court. The plaintiffs, therefore, say that a fit and proper person be appointed as manager to collect the rent and to mitigate the huge statutory rates and taxes lying outstanding in respect of the properties of the said Trust as also the current payments.3
On behalf of the sole defendant, it is submitted that the defendant is the only shebait now alive and is also the sole surviving trustee of the said Trust.
After the death of Arun Kumar Seal, the defendant Anjana De has become the signatory to the bank account wherein the collected rent and occupational charges are deposited. It is also the case of the defendant that she has been collecting the rent since February 2025 pursuant to the death of Arun Kumar Seal and has been depositing the same with the dedicated bank account. The defendant says that there is no question of appointment of any person as manager outside the Trust since Anjana De, the sole surviving trustee and the elder sister of Arun Kumar Seal is alive and is collecting the rent and occupational charges. There is also no requirement for any separate person to be appointed for the purpose of collecting the rent and occupational charges. The matter, therefore, should be heard on affidavits.
After hearing the parties and considering the materials on record, I find that a scheme for management of the said Trust has been passed by this Court by dint of which this Court apart from the provisions of the Trust Deed retains a jurisdiction to pass necessary orders for effective administration of the Trust and its properties.
It is an admitted position that the main income of the Trust is from rent and occupational charges. There are several buildings owned by the Trust wherefrom the collection of rent and occupational charges are also huge. This also leads to huge amount of statutory rates and taxes to be paid 4 to the municipal authorities for such properties. A huge sum is outstanding which is required to be mitigated out of the collection on account of rent/occupational charges. In order to more effectively adjudicate the issues involved, the first step, according to me, should be preparing a list of tenants and occupants in the various properties belonging to the Trust Estate. Once such list is finalized, the collection on account of rent can be tallied with such list to ascertain the income of the Trust from the said properties.
In the aforesaid facts and circumstances, since Anjana De, the sole defendant has submitted that she is collecting the rent and occupational charges at the present, a list of tenants and/or occupants to be prepared by her. The defendant is permitted to file an affidavit specifically providing the number of buildings owned by the trust/deity and the particulars of tenants and occupants thereat along with individual rent/occupational charges. This disclosure shall be part of the affidavit to be affirmed by the sole defendant by 27th October, 2025. The affidavit shall also provide not only the particulars of the tenants and/or occupants but the rent and occupation charges collected from each one of them. The defendant no.1 shall also state the total amount of money which was lying in the bank account wherein she got herself substituted at the time of substitution and that collected after the death of Arun Kumar Seal on account of rent and occupational charges. The affidavit shall also provide the list of balance of any other bank accounts maintained on behalf of the deity/trust in different banks and in particular the bank account wherein the defendant has substituted herself in the place and stead of Arun Kumar Seal, since deceased at the present. 5
Let this matter appear in the monthly list of November 2025 under the same heading.
(ARINDAM MUKHERJEE, J.) Sb/