Meaning of word "charity" - Indian Laws - General

Meaning of word charity In Webster s New World Dictionary, the expression charity is defined thus: Charity 1. in Christianity, the love of God for man or of man for his fellow men. 2. an act of good will or affection. 3. the feeling of good will; benevolence. 4. the quality of being kind or lenient in judging others. 5. a giving of money or other help to those in need; benefaction. 6. an institution, organization, or fund for giving help to those in need. The Halsbury s Laws of England, Vol.5, Fourth Edition while dealing with the definition of charity for the purpose of the Charities Act, 1960, has discussed the matter thus: 501. Definition of charity . For the purposes of the Charities Act, 1960 charity means any institution, corporate or not, which is established for charitable purposes and is subject to the control of the High Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction with respect to charities. Institution includes any trust or undertaking; and charitable purposes means purposes which are exclusively charitable according to the law of England and Wales. The question of whether purposes are or are not charitable is therefore determined according to the same principles as before 1960. The requirement that an institution is subject to the control of the High Court in the exercise of the court's jurisdiction with respect to charities is satisfied if the institution is subject to that jurisdiction in any significant respect. It does not have to be subject to that jurisdiction which the court only exercises over charities and not over other trusts or other corporate bodies, and it is sufficient if the court could restrain the institution from applying its property ultra vires or in breach of trust. The Charities Act 1960 establishes a register of charities and it is the duty of the charity trustees of any charity which is required to be registered to apply for registration. The effect of registration is that an institution is for all purposes other than rectification of the register conclusively presumed to be or to have been a charity at any time when it is or was on the register of charities. The Act does not provide that an institution which, if it were a charity, would be required to be registered, but which is not registered, is for that reason, not a charity. Again, the Halsbury s Laws of England while dealing with the meaning of charity, has discussed the matter thus: 502. Meaning of charity . Since the Charities Act, 1960 provides no statutory definition of what purposes are and what are not charitable, all the cases previously decided on the subject are still relevant. The legal meaning of charitable purposes is said to be precise and technical, and the phrase is a term of art, but it is probably incapable of definition. The popular use of the expressions charity , charitable , charitable objects and charitable purposes does not coincide with their technical legal meaning according to the law of England. The word charitable , when used in its legal sense, covers many objects which a layman might not consider to be included under that word, but it excludes some benevolent or philanthropic activities which a layman might consider charitable. Charitable uses or trusts form a distinct head of equity, and it is the court's duty to determine whether particular purposes are charitable. To be charitable a purpose must satisfy certain tests; it must either fall within the list of purposes enumerated in the preamble to the ancient statute of Elizabeth I (sometimes referred to as the Statute of Charitable Uses or the Charitable Uses Act, 1601) or within one of the four categories of charitable purposes laid down by Lord Macnaghten and derived from the preamble and in the case of the fourth of those categories it must be within the spirit and intendment of the ancient statute, either directly or by analogy with decided cases on the same point, or it must have been declared to be charitable by some other statute. In addition, it must be for the public benefit, that is to say, it must be both beneficial and available to a sufficient section of the community. References to charity in any legislative Act should be construed in their technical legal sense unless a contrary intention appears from the context. For income tax purposes charity means any body of persons or trust established for charitable purposes only. References in any enactment or document to a charity within the meaning, purview, and interpretation of the ancient statute of Elizabeth I, or of the preamble to it, are to be construed as references to a charity within the meaning which the word bears as a legal term according to the law of England and Wales. An activity which is charitable in the legal sense is not any the less charitable because it is being carried on without any regular organization by a person who may discontinue it at any time. Such an activity would come within the statutory definition of charity as a trust or undertaking. The charitable trust can be enforced by the Court, which knows about what charitable purposes are. In the Halsbury s Laws of England, the following discussion has been made in this regard : 504. Purposes must be exclusively charitable. To be a charity in law, a trust or institution must be established for purposes which are exclusively charitable; a charitable trust can be enforced by the court at the suit of the Attorney General, for the court knows what are charitable purposes and can apply the trust property accordingly, but a trust for benevolent purposes cannot be so enforced and is therefore void for uncertainty. [UNION OF INDIA VERSUS MOOL CHAND KHAIRATI RAM TRUST- 2018 (7) TMI 2318 - SUPREME COURT]