essential requirements of legal charity - Indian Laws - General

Essential requirements of legal charity Public welfare is one of the essential requirements of legal charity, which has been discussed in Halsbury s Laws of England in paragraph 505, which is extracted hereunder: 505. Public benefit essential . It is a clearly established principle of the law of charities that a purpose is not charitable unless it is directed to the public benefit so that the element of public benefit is the necessary condition of legal charity. There are two distinct elements in this requirement: the purpose itself must be beneficial and not harmful to the public, and the benefit of the purpose must be available to a sufficient section of the public. The line of distinction between purposes of a public and a private nature is fine and practically incapable of definition. The benefit to the poor is one of the essential requirements of charity. The concept has been discussed in paragraph 509 of Halsbury s Laws of England, which reads thus: 509. Benefit to rich as well as poor . An object may be charitable in the legal sense notwithstanding that it will benefit the rich as well as the poor, but it is difficult to believe that a trust would be held charitable if the poor were excluded from its benefits. In Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales vs. AG (1971) 3 All ER I029, CA, it was observed that when a purpose has been proved to be of general public welfare or beneficial to the community, it will be held to be charitable unless there is some reason for holding that it is not within the spirit and intendment of the Preamble. [UNION OF INDIA VERSUS MOOL CHAND KHAIRATI RAM TRUST- 2018 (7) TMI 2318 - SUPREME COURT]