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Law 404
Assignment on Kumudini
Welfare Trust.
Submitted to: Atia Naznin
Submitted by: Mohammad Habibur Rahman, Id# 11109017
3/12/2013

Introduction:
Generally trust is a right in property held by one person for the benefit of another. I believe trust is one of
the landmark doors through which one can serve the entire society. Because general principle of law hold up
that one is free to donate or transfer his property to whom or where he/she wishes to do so. Thus trust serve
a variety of purposes and may take a number of different forms.
1
As Maitland
2
100 years ago describing
trusts as an institute of great elasticity and generality and as the most distinctive achievement.
3
Kumudini
Welfare Trust Bangladesh (BD) is a very old and well known trust in Bangladesh which is working for
charity for around sixty five years. Today our main objective of the discussion is an analysis on Kumudini
Welfare Trust.
Historically RP Shaha
4
placed all his companies and businesses in a trust by the name of Kumudini Welfare
Trust with a view to using part of its incomes for public welfare. Consequently this trust was established in
June 1947.
Nature of this trust:
To identify the nature of a particular trust, one needs to make out different aspects of this trust. Kumudini
welfare trust did not precisely refer the beneficiary group. However objectives of the trust show that the
vision of the trust is to serve the suffering humanity by way of providing different services. With regard to
the trust general principle of law is that for a valid trust three things need to be certain
5
.
First is certainty of intention which basically denotes the intention of the author of the trust, RP Saha in this
trust. It is very much clear from the objectives
6
and activities of the trust that settler had a clear and concise
intention towards this trust. Second is certainty of subject matter, the settler purposely established different
institutions for the purpose of charity between 1938 and 1944 and subsequently he placed all his companies

1
Trust Law International/2011 - Volume 25/Issue 4, 1 December/Articles/The Nature of Beneficiaries' Rights under Trusts -
(2011) 4 TL 163-183
2
Frederic William Maitland was an English jurist and historian, generally regarded as the modern father of English legal history.
3
The New Law Journal/2010 Volume 160/Issue 7417, May/Articles/Book review: International Trust Laws - 160 NLJ 700.
4
Rai Bahadur Ranada Prasad Shaha founder of the trust.
5
Knight v Knight (1840) 49 ER 58.
6
Main objectives: Provide free medical care for rural people; Spread education among the under privileged girls; working with
rural women to improve their status in the society and their family; Gear up environmental harmony; Develop skilled manpower
that can attribute towards economic uplift of the society; Creating a peaceful society by promoting mutual tolerance and self
reliance. (http://kumudinibd.com/Objective).

under this trust. Thus it is safe to argue that there was clear indication of the existence of the subject matter
as settler permanently provided it for the charitable work.
Final and most important part of the trust is certainty of the object; from the objectives of the trust it is
apparent that this trust serves the suffering humanity. In other words there is no specific beneficiary group
referred in this trust. However there is an exception applies in charitable trust is that, beneficiary group does
not need to be certain in every time. The common law approach support that it is possible to have a trust, not
for a person or persons, but for a purpose.
7
Even a trust can hide the beneficial ownership from the outside
world.
8
Therefore numbers of rules affecting the validity of a trust are relaxed in the case of trusts for
exclusively charitable objects.
Whether a particular purpose is or is not charitable is a question of considerable difficulty. The best way to
approach the issue is in two stages, asking the following questions
9
:
Is the purpose prima facie charitable?
If so, is it for the benefit of the public?
Firstly, the objectives and welfare activities of the trust denotes that the purpose of this trust is charitable in
nature. The main purpose of this trust is to do welfare of the society as charter of the trust includes that trust
property shall not be used for personal profit or gains. However a trust is not charitable merely because it
benefits some section of the public; we must also show it to be a charitable trust.
10
But regarding this trust
we can submit that it is a charitable trust as it is providing different charitable works consistently since 1947
as per the charter; such as Kumudini hospital
11
and Kumudini Nursing School
12
, Trade training School
13
,
Village Outreach program
14
etc.
To answer the second question we need to see different welfare activities of the trust to identify whether it is
for the public benefit or not. One of the main objectives of this trust is to take away poverty by providing

7
Text Book Law of trusts Robert Chambers; James Penner; William Swadling: Published by: University of London,
University of London 2013; page.117.
8
L Smith, 'Unjust Enrichment, Property, and the Structure of Trusts' (2000) 116 LQR 412, 431.
9
Ibid at 7, page.118.
10
A-G v National Provincial and Union Bank of England [1924] AC 262.
11
http://kumudinibd.com/Kumudini-Hospital%C2%A0.
12
http://kumudinibd.com/Nursing-School.
13
http://kumudinibd.com/Trade-Training-School.
14
http://kumudinibd.com/Village-Outreach-Program.
training to young boys from poor families. It was held in the case of Turner
15
that working for the relief of
poverty is amount to public benefit. Further this trust is also working for the advancement of the education
which is also held as for the public benefit.
16
Thus we can conclusively submit that this trust is established
for the benefit of the public.

Instances of Charitable trust inherited in this trust:
There are different examples of charitable trust inherited in the Kumudini Welfare Trust. First of all, this
trust provides free medical care for rural people through Kumudini hospital so that they can have a healthy
and quality life. This medical service is undoubtedly providing a great welfare to the poor people and thus
society as a whole. And it was held in the case of Pemsel
17
that charitable purposes include anything done
which beneficial to the community.
Secondly, Kumudini trust Spread education among the mass especially for the under privileged girls. In
Kumudini Nursing School and college girls are trained free. And under the nursing School so many
abandoned and widowed women from poor families in the village were trained to assist.
Further, Kumudini Technical Training Institute provides training to young boys from poor families without
any cost. This Institute is totally funded and run by Kumudini Welfare Trust. Through these institutions
kumudini welfare trust is working for the development of the poverty
18
and the advancement of the
education
19
which are also treated as charitable purposes. As different utilities of this trust are amounted as
the charitable activity and these are recognized by the common law precedents so it is safe to submit that
this is undoubtedly a (public) charitable trust. Since it was held that, a trust for charitable purposes would
be perfectly valid.
20


15
Dingle v Turner [1972] AC 601, Court held that, the testator by his will transferred property to his trustees and directed them to
apply the income in paying pensions to poor employees of Dingle Ltd. There were 705 full-time employees and 189 part-time
employees of the company. The question in issue was whether the gift was charitable. The House of Lords decided that the gift
was charitable for the relief of poverty and in particular, the public benefit test was satisfied.
16
Whicker v Hume (1858) 7 HL Cases 124.
17
Lord Macnaghten in Income Tax Commissioners v Pemsel (1891) AC 531.
18
Attorney General v Charity Commission for England and Wales and others; Specialist Case Digests, LNB News 20/02/2012
74,Published Date 20 February 2012, Jurisdiction: England; Northern Ireland; Scotland; Wales; Decision Date: 20 February 2012;
Court Upper Tribunal (Finance and Tax).
19
Whicker v Hume (1858) 7 HL Cases 124.
20
Ibid at 19. Page.85.
Specific legislation under which Kumudini welfare trust is acting:
Under Companies Act 1913 this trust was registered as nonprofit company for the purpose of charity.
Although this trust was registered under the Companies Act 1913
21
but now the governing law for this trust
is The Charitable and Religious Trusts Act, 1920
22
. As preamble of the Act of 1920 depicts that the purpose
of this Act is to provide more effectual control over the administration of Charitable
23
and Religious Trusts.
Moreover ministry of Social Welfare has the control over the charitable trust and over their function. This is
to ensure that the trust is perfectly going on, as there is no specific beneficiary group is defined by the trust.
As in the UK charitable trusts, can only be enforced by the Charity Commission, which acts on behalf of the
crown.
24
Thereby in this trust one advisor from the Government is included in the trustee board.
However, it is noteworthy that regarding the public trust there is no direct governing law present in our
country whereas India has public Trust Act. But we have distinct laws to govern the public or charitable
trusts. For example, The societies Registration Act, 1860
25
an important Act under which charitable societies
can register their society and perform their charitable activity.
26
Secondly, The Voluntary Social Welfare
Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance, 1961
27
is for the welfare agencies where agency defines as
a voluntary social welfare agency.
28

Additionally for the different religion there are distinct laws are in service to perform their religious welfare
trusts such as The Hindu Religious Welfare Trust Ordinance, 1983
29
for Hindu, The Buddhist Religious
Welfare Trust Ordinance, 1983
30
for Buddhist and The Christian Religious Welfare Trust Ordinance, 1983
31

for Christian.


21
ACT NO.VII of 1913.
22
ACT NO. XIV OF 1920.
23
Preamble of the Act clarified again that it applies to trusts created for public purposes of a charitable or religious nature.
24
TRUSTS, vol 48 (2007 Reissue) PARAS 1073, 1095.
25
ACT NO. XXI OF 1860.
26
Section 20 of the The societies Registration Act, 1860.
27
ORDINANCE NO. XLVI OF 1961.
28
Section 2(a) of the The Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance, 1961.
29
ORDINANCE NO. LXVIII OF 1983.
30
ORDINANCE NO. LXIX OF 1983.
31
ORDINANCE NO. LXX OF 1983.
Operation of this trust in Bangladesh:
Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal is maintaining by the other institutions which are earning money to
finance the welfare organization. Kumudini has expanded its business for the purpose of financing other
charitable institutions. The company has many earning institutions
32
and current managing director of these
institutions is grandchild of R.P Saha. Through these earning sources they earn a good amount of profit and
spent it for the trust. Thereby this trust is performing its charitable activity in different sectors
33
.
Conclusion:
To conclude it can be said that Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal (BD) is one of the model charitable trust
for the progress in different sector. This kind of trusts for several centuries has been an important vehicle by
which charitable works are carried out. However we need a proper and specific trust law for the public
charitable trust so that we can easily continue with the practice of charity and humanitarian activities. And
government also needs to monitor trustees; as trustee obliged to ensure the trust property is properly
distributed to the correct beneficiaries at the correct point in time.
34
Because we need to keep in our mind
that charitable trusts are working for the human progress and the society as a whole.
35






32
Earning Institutions are: Kumuduni Womens Medical College; Kumudini Handicrafts; Jute Bailing and Warehouse; Kumudini
Garment Division; Kumudini Pharma LTD; Bengal River Services (BD) LTD.
33
Welfare institutions are: Kumudini 750 Bed Hospital; Kumudini Nursing School and College; Bharateshwari Homes; Kumudini
Technical Training Institute.

34
Trust Law International/2011 - Volume 25/Issue 4, 1 December/Articles/The Nature of Beneficiaries' Rights under Trusts -
(2011) 4 TL 163-183.
35
Ibid at 7, page.109.
Bibliography


Journal Articles:
1. Trust Law International/2011 - Volume 25/Issue 4, 1 December/Articles/The Nature of Beneficiaries'
Rights under Trusts - (2011) 4 TL 163-183.
2. The New Law Journal/2010 Volume 160/Issue 7417, May/Articles/Book review: International Trust
Laws - 160 NLJ 700.
3. L Smith, 'Unjust Enrichment, Property, and the Structure of Trusts' (2000) 116 LQR 412, 431.
Books:
1. Text Book Law of trusts Robert Chambers; James Penner; William Swadling: Published by:
University of London press, University of London 2013.
2. Text Book on Trusts, Sarah Wilson, Todd & Wilson: 7
th
ed. Oxford University Press.

Cases Cited:
1. Whicker v Hume (1858) 7 HL Cases 124.
2. Knight v Knight (1840) 49 ER 58.
3. Income Tax Commissioners v Pemsel (1891) AC 531.
4. Attorney General v Charity Commission for England and Wales and others [1972] Ch 73.
5. A-G v National Provincial and Union Bank of England [1924] AC 262.

Legislation Cited:
1. Companies Act 1913.
2. The Charitable and Religious Trusts Act, 1920.
3. Trust Act 1882.
4. The societies Registration Act, 1860.
5. The Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance, 1961.
6. The Hindu Religious Welfare Trust Ordinance, 1983.
7. The Buddhist Religious Welfare Trust Odinance, 1983.
8. Christian Religious Welfare Trust Ordinance, 1983.

Online Resources:
1. www.lexinexis.com
2. www.Jstor.org
3. www.bailli.org