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"Section 47 of Indian Trusts Act, 1882 :- Trustee cannot delegate -

A trustee cannot delegate his office or any of his duties either to a co-trustee or to a stranger, unless

(a) the instrument of trust so provides, or

(b) the delegation is in the regular course of business, or

"Section 47 of Indian Trusts Act, 1882 :- Trustee cannot delegate -

4 2021 (2) MPLJ 179 : 2020 SCC OnLine MP 4458 NEUTRAL CITATION NO.2025:MPHC-IND:7731 15 CR No.454/2021 A trustee cannot delegate his office or any of his duties either to a co-trustee or to a stranger, unless

"When there are more trustees than one, all must join in the execution of the trust, except where the instrument of trust otherwise provides."

Section 47 reads:

"A trustee cannot delegate his office or any of his duties either to a co- trustee or to a stranger, unless (a) the instrument of trust so provides, or (b) the declaration is in the regular course of business, or (c) the delegation is necessary, or (d) the beneficiary, being competent to contract, consents to the delegation.'' There is, therefore, a very grave doubt in our mind as to whether a single trustee can sue and whether he can sue in the name of the Trust. It is also very doubtful whether a resolution can be passed authorising only some of the trustees to file a suit. In the decision given by Deshpande J., Birdhi Chand Jain Charitable Trust v. Kanhaiyalal Shamlal, 1972, R.L.R. 142, it was held that a resolution could be passed authorising one of the Trustees to file the suit. But, that resolution had not been proved. It was also observed:--

NEUTRAL CITATION NO.2025:MPHC-IND:7731 17 CR No.454/2021

27. In view of the above judgments, the trust has no legal value itself and delegation of power through resolution is contrary to the scheme of the Trusts Act, the same does not dispense with the requirement laid down in Sections 47 and 48 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882. The present suit is filed by Shri Rajendra Joshi gets authority on the basis of trust resolution authorising the co-trustee Mr. Malhotra to carry out the works of the trust by executed General Power of Attorney. All the co-trustees must be joined in the suit, if any one or more of them are unwilling to join in the suit as plaintiffs or for some reason or the other it is not possible to join them as plaintiffs, they must be impleaded as defendants, so that all the co-trustees are before the Court, when all the trustees are not joined, suit of the plaintiff is not maintainable for non-joinder of the parties, the plaint can be rejected on the ground of all the trustees were not added as parties in the suit, they cannot delegate by just passing a resolution dated 25.09.2009, therefore, I am of the opinion that the suit could not have been maintained by one of the co-trustees and further, no resolution passed unanimously by all the other co-trustees could authorise one of the trustee to file the suit and the trustees cannot be delegated the stranger to file the suit, therefore, the present suit was not properly instituted and the suit filed by the plaintiff is not in accordance with law.