Charity Commissioner vs Joint vs Assistant Commissioner Powers

The Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 divides authority over public trusts across four tiers: the Assistant and Deputy Charity Commissioners conduct registration inquiries under Section 19 and change report inquiries under Section 22, the Joint Charity Commissioner hears appeals from their findings under Section 70, and the Charity Commissioner alone sanctions major property transactions and suspends or removes trustees. Since the Maharashtra Public Trusts (Amendment) Act, 2017 removed the further departmental appeal against the Charity Commissioner's own orders, a writ petition to the Bombay High Court is now the only recourse. This article maps each tier's functions and the appeal path between them.

The Statutory Hierarchy Under Section 5

Section 5 of the Act empowers the State Government to constitute the office of the Charity Commissioner for the state, along with such number of Deputy Charity Commissioners and Assistant Charity Commissioners as are considered necessary for particular regions, sub-regions, or classes of trusts. In practice, the state has also created the post of Joint (or Additional) Charity Commissioner, sitting between the Deputy Charity Commissioner and the Charity Commissioner, to whom appellate and supervisory functions are assigned by administrative allocation. The qualifications prescribed for these posts are graded: a Deputy Charity Commissioner must ordinarily have held judicial office not below the rank of Civil Judge (Senior Division), or have practised as an advocate for at least eight years, or have served as an Assistant Charity Commissioner for at least five years; an Assistant Charity Commissioner requires either one year of judicial experience at the Junior Division level, four years of legal practice, or a law degree combined with five years in a charity organisation role.

Why Is the Office Structured This Way?

Maharashtra has tens of thousands of registered public trusts. A single Charity Commissioner could not personally conduct every registration inquiry or scrutinise every change report filed under the Act. The tiered structure exists to keep first-instance fact-finding close to the trust's actual location (through Assistant and Deputy Charity Commissioners posted across districts), while concentrating appellate review, revisional oversight, and decisions with state-wide consequence in fewer, more senior hands.

Delegation Under Section 6 and Allied Provisions

Section 6 permits the State Government to appoint a Director of Accounts, Inspectors, and other subordinate staff, and separately allows delegation of specified powers, including the power to appoint subordinate officers, to the Charity Commissioner and to the Deputy and Assistant Charity Commissioners. This delegation mechanism is what allows the Charity Commissioner's office to function as a devolved administrative structure rather than a single decision-maker: powers conferred on "the Charity Commissioner" under various sections of the Act can, subject to notification, be exercised by officers lower in the hierarchy acting on delegated authority, without diluting the Charity Commissioner's ultimate accountability for the office.

Functions at the Ward and District Level

The Assistant and Deputy Charity Commissioners are, in most trusts' actual experience, the officers a trustee deals with first.

Section 19: Inquiry for Registration

When an application for registration of a public trust is filed under Section 18, it is the Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner who conducts the inquiry under Section 19. That inquiry examines whether a trust exists in fact, whether it qualifies as a public trust within the meaning of the Act, the nature and value of trust property, the names and addresses of trustees and the manager, the mode of succession to trusteeship, and the origin, nature, and object of the trust, along with its income and expenditure. Registration itself, and the contents of the register, flow from this ward-level inquiry.

Section 22: Change Reports

Once a trust is registered, any change to the recorded particulars, a new trustee, a change of address, an alteration to the trust's objects, must be reported to the Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner within ninety days of the change occurring. That officer inquires into the change, may provisionally record it, invites objections, and then records a finding either accepting or rejecting the reported change. This is one of the most frequently litigated stages of trust administration, because a change of trustees that is never properly reported and verified can later be challenged as invalid.

Accounts Scrutiny

Annual accounts filed by trustees are also scrutinised at this level in the ordinary course, with irregularities referred upward where they raise questions of surcharge, misapplication of funds, or possible removal of a trustee, matters that sit outside the Assistant or Deputy Charity Commissioner's own decision-making authority.

Functions Reserved to the Joint Charity Commissioner and the Charity Commissioner

Certain categories of decision are, by the scheme of the Act, kept at a more senior level, either because they involve appellate review of a subordinate officer's finding, or because the underlying power is one the Act vests directly in the Charity Commissioner.

Appeals Under Section 70

Section 70 provides that a person aggrieved by a finding of the Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner, for instance, in a registration inquiry under Section 19 or a change report inquiry under Section 22, may appeal. In practice, this appellate jurisdiction is exercised by the Joint Charity Commissioner in the first instance under delegated authority, reserving the Charity Commissioner's own bench for matters of wider significance or for further scrutiny. Section 70A separately empowers the Charity Commissioner to call for and examine, on the Commissioner's own motion (suo motu), the record and proceedings before a Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner, a supervisory check that operates independently of any appeal actually filed by a party.

Sanctioning Larger Transactions and Disciplinary Powers

Decisions with more significant consequences for a trust, sanctioning the sale, exchange, mortgage, or lease of immovable trust property beyond prescribed thresholds, ordering surcharge against a trustee found liable for loss caused to the trust under Section 41, and suspending, removing, or dismissing a trustee under the provisions inserted as Sections 41A to 41E, are functions the Act places with the Charity Commissioner. These are not merely appellate powers; they are original jurisdiction conferred directly on the Charity Commissioner, distinct from anything an Assistant or Deputy Charity Commissioner can decide on their own file.

The Independence of the Charity Commissioner's Disciplinary Jurisdiction

A useful illustration of how these layers interact, rather than operate as watertight compartments, comes from the Bombay High Court's decision in Mehernosh Jamshed Jassawalla v. Lalitrao Bhaskarrao Patil [2025 SCC OnLine Bom 89]. The Court held that the Charity Commissioner's jurisdiction to entertain an application for suspension, removal, or dismissal of a trustee under Section 41D is an independent proceeding, and is not put on hold merely because a change report concerning that trustee's own appointment happens to be pending before the Deputy Charity Commissioner under Section 22. The Court reasoned that allowing a pending Section 22 inquiry to act as a shield would frustrate the protective purpose of Section 41D, letting a trustee facing serious allegations of mismanagement escape scrutiny simply because a lower-level administrative formality remained unresolved. The case is a reminder that the hierarchy divides functions, not accountability: a matter properly within the Charity Commissioner's own jurisdiction proceeds on its own footing, irrespective of what is happening lower down the same file.

Hierarchy at a Glance

The Appellate Structure After the 2017 Amendment

Before 2017, a party dissatisfied with the Charity Commissioner's decision under specified sections, including decisions on appeal under Section 70, had a further right of appeal to the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal under the then-existing Section 71, and in certain categories of dispute could file an application to set aside the Charity Commissioner's decision in the District Court under the then-existing Section 72. The Maharashtra Public Trusts (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Mah. 55 of 2017) deleted both of these provisions. The practical consequence is that once a matter has been decided by the Charity Commissioner, whether in original jurisdiction or in exercise of the revisional power under Section 70A, the remedy available to an aggrieved trustee or trust today ordinarily lies by way of a writ petition to the Bombay High Court, rather than a further statutory appeal or a civil suit before the District Court. This shift concentrated a layer of scrutiny that used to sit within the administrative and civil court system directly into the High Court's supervisory jurisdiction, which has, in turn, made getting the forum right at the Assistant or Deputy Charity Commissioner stage more important than before: an error in identifying the correct first-instance authority can no longer be quietly corrected through a low-cost Revenue Tribunal appeal.

What Are the Practical Consequences for Trustees?

A trustee filing a change report, contesting a registration finding, or responding to a notice should first identify which level of the hierarchy has actually issued the order in question. That determines both the correct appellate forum and the applicable limitation period, and getting it wrong can cost weeks.

Orders passed by an Assistant or Deputy Charity Commissioner are generally open to appeal to the Joint Charity Commissioner. Orders passed by the Charity Commissioner personally, particularly under Sections 41 or 41A to 41E, are not open to a further departmental appeal at all; the only recourse is constitutional writ jurisdiction. Trustees dealing with proceedings connected to allegations of mismanagement should also understand how the Charity Commissioner's substantive powers of intervention operate. A more detailed account is available in this firm's earlier article on the Charity Commissioner's powers over trust mismanagement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an Assistant Charity Commissioner sanction the sale of trust property?

No. Sanctioning the sale, exchange, mortgage, or lease of immovable trust property beyond the thresholds prescribed under the Act is a power vested in the Charity Commissioner, not in the Assistant or Deputy Charity Commissioner. A trust seeking such sanction must apply through the Charity Commissioner's office, even if the trust itself is registered and administered at a ward level.

Where does an appeal against a change report finding go?

An appeal against a finding recorded by the Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner under Section 22 lies to the Joint Charity Commissioner, exercising appellate powers under Section 70. It does not go directly to the Charity Commissioner, though the Charity Commissioner retains a separate power under Section 70A to call for and examine the record on the Commissioner's own motion.

Is the Joint Charity Commissioner a statutory post created by the Act itself?

The Act, through Section 5, principally provides for the Charity Commissioner, Deputy Charity Commissioners, and Assistant Charity Commissioners. The Joint or Additional Charity Commissioner functions within this structure through administrative allocation and delegation of appellate and supervisory duties, sitting between the Deputy Charity Commissioner and the Charity Commissioner in practical hierarchy.

What happened to the right of appeal to the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal?

That right of appeal, previously available under Section 71, was deleted by the Maharashtra Public Trusts (Amendment) Act, 2017. Along with the deletion of the District Court remedy under the former Section 72, this means that decisions of the Charity Commissioner are no longer subject to a further statutory appeal within the administrative or civil court framework.

Can the Charity Commissioner act on a matter while a related change report is still pending before the Deputy Charity Commissioner?

Yes. As the Bombay High Court clarified in the Jassawalla case, proceedings for suspension, removal, or dismissal of a trustee under Section 41D are independent of, and not stayed by, a pending change report inquiry under Section 22 concerning the same trustee before the Deputy Charity Commissioner.

Does a trustee always have to exhaust the departmental appeal before approaching a court?

Generally, yes, where a departmental appeal is available, such as an appeal to the Joint Charity Commissioner under Section 70, courts ordinarily expect that remedy to be exhausted first. Once a matter has reached the Charity Commissioner's own original or revisional jurisdiction and no further departmental appeal exists, a writ petition to the Bombay High Court becomes the appropriate route, subject to the facts of the case.

How long does a trustee have to report a change under Section 22?

Ninety days from the date the change occurs. This includes changes such as the appointment of a new trustee, a trustee's resignation or death, or an alteration in the trust's registered particulars. Delay in reporting can itself become a point of objection during the inquiry that follows.

What qualifications must a person have to be appointed Assistant Charity Commissioner?

Under Section 5 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950, an Assistant Charity Commissioner must have either one year of judicial experience at the Junior Division level, four years of legal practice as an advocate, or a law degree combined with five years working in a charity organisation. These graded qualifications are lower than those prescribed for a Deputy Charity Commissioner.

Can a trustee approach the Bombay High Court directly without going through the departmental appeal first?

Generally not. Where a departmental appeal is available, such as an appeal to the Joint Charity Commissioner under Section 70 against a Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner's finding, courts ordinarily require that remedy to be exhausted before entertaining a writ petition. A writ petition becomes the appropriate route only once departmental remedies are exhausted or none remain available.

What is the difference between the Charity Commissioner's original jurisdiction and revisional jurisdiction?

Original jurisdiction refers to matters the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 places directly with the Charity Commissioner, such as sanctioning major property transactions or ordering a trustee's suspension or removal under Sections 41A to 41E. Revisional jurisdiction, exercised under Section 70A, allows the Charity Commissioner to call for and examine, on the Commissioner's own motion, the record of proceedings already decided by a Deputy or Assistant Charity Commissioner.

What qualifications must a person have to be appointed Deputy Charity Commissioner?

Under Section 5 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950, a Deputy Charity Commissioner must ordinarily have held judicial office not below the rank of Civil Judge, Senior Division, or have practised as an advocate for at least eight years, or have served as an Assistant Charity Commissioner for at least five years. These qualifications sit a tier above those prescribed for an Assistant Charity Commissioner, reflecting the Deputy's role handling larger or more complex trusts at the district or regional level. The graded structure ensures more senior adjudicatory experience is required as a post's supervisory responsibility increases.

What powers can the Charity Commissioner delegate to subordinate officers under Section 6?

Section 6 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 allows the State Government to appoint a Director of Accounts, Inspectors, and other subordinate staff, and separately permits delegation of specified powers, including the power to appoint subordinate officers, from the Charity Commissioner to the Deputy and Assistant Charity Commissioners. This delegation mechanism lets powers conferred on the Charity Commissioner under various sections of the Act be exercised by officers lower in the hierarchy, subject to notification, without diluting the Charity Commissioner's ultimate accountability for the office or requiring every function to pass through a single decision-maker.

What is a surcharge order under Section 41, and who can pass one?

A surcharge order under Section 41 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 directs a trustee found liable for loss caused to the trust, through misapplication of funds or a similar breach, to personally make good that loss from their own resources. Only the Charity Commissioner can pass a surcharge order; it is not a power available to the Assistant or Deputy Charity Commissioner, since it falls within the Charity Commissioner's original jurisdiction alongside sanctioning larger property transactions and ordering suspension or removal of a trustee. Accounts scrutiny at the ward level often surfaces the irregularities that lead to such proceedings.

What is the difference between invoking Article 226 and Article 227 of the Constitution against a Charity Commissioner order?

Article 226 of the Constitution empowers the Bombay High Court to issue writs, including certiorari, for enforcement of fundamental rights and for any other purpose, and is typically invoked where an order of the Charity Commissioner is challenged as illegal or without jurisdiction. Article 227 confers supervisory jurisdiction over tribunals and authorities within the state, including the Charity Commissioner's office, and is generally invoked to correct a jurisdictional error or a grave procedural irregularity rather than to re-examine findings of fact. Petitions challenging Charity Commissioner orders after the 2017 amendment commonly invoke both articles together.

Related reading

Why Ledgers Alone Cannot Prove Liability in Indian Courts · What Public Trusts Must File With the Charity Commissioner Each Year · How to File a Change Report Under Section 22 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act

Vikrant D. Shetty | Vikrant D. Shetty leads the Litigation Practice at the Mumbai-based law firm - Vikrant D. Shetty & Associates, Advocates & Solicitors. The law firm regularly appears before the Bombay High Court and before the Charity Commissioner's office at various levels in Maharashtra, and advises trustees on navigating the administrative hierarchy under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your situation, please seek direct consultation with an advocate.