The Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949

West Bengal Act XVI of 1949 
THE MAHAJATI SADAN ACT, 1940. 

[Passed by the West Bengal Legislature.] 

[Assent of the Governor General was first published in the Calcutta 
Gazette, of the 14th April, 1949.] 

An Act to provide for the speedy acquisition, of the land and 
the unfinished buildings thereon, convmonly known as the 
Mahajati Sadan, for the continuance and completion of 
the erection of the Mahajati Sadan, for the maintenance, 
management and use thereof and for the creation of a 
body of trustees. 

WHEREAS certain sums of money were subscribed by the 
people of India with the object of erecting a building to be 
used and utilised mainly for purposes described in the 
Second Schedule and were collected by a Committee called 
the Subhas Congress Fund Committee constituted at a 
meeting of the people of Calcutta for the purpose of collect-
ing such subscriptions ; 

AND WHEREAS in furtherance of the said object Netaji 
Subhas Chandra Bose took a lease of the land described in 
item (a) of the First Schedule from the Corporation of 
Calcutta and initiated the erection thereon of the buildings 
hereinafter referred to as the Mahajati Sadan of which the 
foundation stone was laid by Kaviguru Rabindra Nath 
Tagore; 

AND WHEREAS the erection of the Mahajati Sadan could 
not be completed for being so used and utilised by Netaji 
Subhas Chandra Bose ; 

AND WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the speedy 
acquisition of the properties described in the First Schedule, 
for the continuance and completion of the erection of the 
Mahajati Sadan, for the maintenance, management and use 
thereof and for the creation of a body of trustees; 

It is hereby enacted as follows:- 

1. (1) This Act may be called the Mahajati Sadan Act, short title 
1949. 	 and. 

commence. 
1 (2) It shall come into force on such date as the Provincial meat. 

Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, 
appoint. 

2. In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in Definitions. 
the subject or context,— 

(a) "the Board" means the Board of trustees for the 
Mahajati Sadan constituted under this Act, 

(b) "Collector" means the First Land Acquisition Col-
lector, Calcutta, 

I of 	(a) "person interested" has the same meaning as in the 
1894, 	 Land Acquisition Act, 1894, 

1The Act came into force on the let May, 1049, side Government of 
West Bengal, Judicial Department, notification No. 2186J., dated the 23rd 
April, 1949. 



Incorpora-
tion of 
Trustees. 

2 	 The Mahajati Simian Act, 1949. 

[West Ben. Act 

(Sections 3-6.) 

(d) the expression "purposes of the Mahajati Sadan" 
means purposes relating to the erection, equip-
ment, maintenance, repairs, .additions, altera-
tions, management, control, use or application of 
the Mahajati Sadan or of any property or Fund 
held for or in connection with the Mahajati Sadan 
and includes the purposes ref erred to in clause 
(i) of section 8, 

(e) "trustee" means a member of the Board. 

3. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the entire 
management and control of the Mahajati Sadan shall, on 
and from the date on which the notification referred to in 
section 8 is published in the Official Gazette, be vested in a 
Board to be called "the Trustees for the Mahajati Sadan" 
and the Board shall be a body corporate having perpetual 
succession and a common seal, with power to acquire and 
hold property both movable and immovable and to enter into 
contracts and do all acts necessary and consistent with the 
purposes of this Act and shall by the said name sue and be 
sued. 

4. (1) The Board shall be constituted by the Provincial 
Government in such manner and consisting of such number 
of trustees not exceeding eleven, of whom not more than 
four may be ex-officio trustees, as may be prescribed by rules 
made by the Provincial Government. 

(2) All acts done by a majority of the trustees present 
and voting at a meeting of the Board and all acts done in 
pursuance of a majority decision of the trustees obtained by 
circulation to the trustees of the matter requiring decision 
shall be deemed to be acts of the Board. 

(3) The Board may appoint a person to act as its 
Secretary and may also appoint in such manner as may be 
prescribed by rules made by the Provincial Government a 
Managing Committee and such other Committees as the 
Board may think fit and delegate to such Committee or Com-
mittees such of its powers as it may deem expedient. 

(4) Orders for the payment of money on behalf of the 
Board shall be deemed to be sufficiently authenticated if 
signed by two trustees and countersigned by the Secretary 
of the Board. 

Trustees, 	5. Every trustee and every member of the Managing 
Officers and Committee and every officer and servant of the Board shall 
servants to 

be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of 
be public 
servants. 	section 21 of the Indian Penal Code. 

Constitu-
tion of the 
Board. 

Act XLV 
of 1800. 

Acquisi-
tion. 

6. (1) The Provincial Government may acquire the 
properties described in the First Schedule (hereinafter in 
this section referred to as the said properties) by publishing 
in the Official Gazette a notice to the effect that the Provin-
cial Government has decided to acquire the said properties 
in pursuance of this section. 



The Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949. 	 3 
XV I of 1949.] 

(Sections 7, 8.) 

(2) When the notice as aforesaid is published in the 
Official Gazette, the said properties shall, on and from the 
beginning of the day on which the notice is so published, 
vest absolutely in the Provincial Government free from all 
incumbrances, and thereupon the Provincial Government 
may take possession of the said properties in such manner 
as it may think fit. 

(3) When the said properties are acquired in pursuance 
of this section, there shall be paid to the persons interested 
such compensation as may be determined and apportioned 
by the Collector— 

(a) in accordance with agreements reached between the 
persons interested and the Provincial Govern-
ment, or 

(b) where no such agreement can be reached, in the 
manner and in accordance  with the principles set 

I of 1894 	 out in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, so, 
however, that the market value referred to in 
clause first of sub-section (1) of section 23 of the 
said Act shall be deemed to be the market value 
of the said properties on the date of publication 
of the notice referred to in sub-section (1), 

and claimed by such persons within three months from the 
date of publication of the notice referred to in sub-section 
(1). 

(4) The decision of the Collector under snip-section (3) 
shall be final and shall not be called in question in any Court. 

7. When the properties described in the First Sche-
dule are acquired in pursuance of section 6, the erection 
of the Mahajati Sadan shall be continued and completed as 
far as may be in accordance with the original plan approv-
ed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and sanctioned by the 
Corporation of Calcutta with such alterations therein as the 
Provincial Government may think fit, and the Mahajati 
Sadan shall thereafter be equipped in such manner as the 
Provincial Government may think fit. 

8. Upon the completion of the erection and equipment 
of the Mahajati Sadan under section 7, the Provincial Gov-
ernment may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct 
the Board to take possession of the properties described in 
the First Schedule together with the Mahajati Sadan as so 
erected and equipped and thereupon— 

(i) the Board shall receive and take possession of and 
hold the same in trust for such purposes as may 
be prescribed by rules made by the Provincial 
Government consistently with the objects set 
out in the Second Schedule, and 

(ii) all sums of money in the custody of the aforesaid 
Subhas Congress Fund Committee and all other 
property whether movable or immovable which 
have been or may hereafter be given, bequeath-
ed or otherwise transferred for the purposes of 

Erection of 
Mahajati 
Sadan. 

Property to 
vest in the 
Board. 



4 	 The Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949. 
[West Ben. Act 

Mahajati 
Sadan 
Fund. 

(Sections 9-13.) 

the Mahajati Sadan or acquired by the Board 
for the said purposes shall vest in the Board to 
be held in trust for the purposes of the Mahajati 
Sadan. 

9. (1) There shall be formed for the Mahajati Sadan 

a fund to be called the Mahajati Sadan Fund to which shall 
be credited— 

(a) the sums of money paid or granted by the Provin-
cial Government and the Corporation of Cal-
cutta either as contributions for the mainten-
ance of the Mahajati Sadan or Otherwise for 
the purposes thereof, 

(b) all other sums of money received . by the Board for 
the purposes of the Mahajati Sadan, and 

(c) all income derived from any property owned or 
managed by the Board for the purposes of the 
Mahajati Sadan. 

(2) The Mahajati Sadan Fund shall become vested in the 
Board and shall be under the control and be held in trust 
for the purposes of the Mahajati Sadan. 

(3) All monies creditable to the Mahajati Sadan Fund 
shall be received by the Secretary to the Board and shall 
forthwith be paid into the Imperial Bank of India to the 
credit of an account to be called the Mahajati Sadan Fund 
Account. 

Contribu-
tion by the 
Provincial 
Govern-
ment. 

Contribu-
tion by the 
Corpora-
tion of 
Calcutta. 

Repairs to 
the Maha-
jati Sedan, 

Mainten-
ance of 
accounts 
by the 
Board. 

10. The Provincial Government shall, for the purposes 
of the Mahajati Sadan, contribute annually to the Board 
a sum of twenty-five thousand rupees and may contribute 
such other sum as the Provincial Government may think fit. 

11. Notwithstanding anything contained in the Cal-
cutta Municipal Act, 1923, the Corporation of Calcutta B en . Ac

1923
t 

shall, for the purposes of the Mahajati Sadan, contribute m 
of 	. 

annually to the Board a sum of five thousand rupees and 
may contribute such other sums as the Corporation may, 
from time to time, determine. 

12. The Provincial Government shall contribute 
annually a sum not less than five thousand rupees for the 
purposes of causing such repairs, additions or alterations to 
be executed to the main and subsidiary buildings of the 
Mahajati Sadan and to the equipments thereof as, in the 
opinion of the Provincial Government, are necessary. 

13. The accounts of the Board shall be kept, audited 
and published in accordance with such rules as may be 
made by the Provincial Government and shall show the 
initial expenditure incurred by the Provincial Government— 

(a) under section 6 for acquiring the properties des-
cribed in the First Schedule, and 



Validation. 

XVI of 1949.1 
	The Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949. 	 5 

(Sections 14-16.) 

(b) under section 7 for completing the erection of the 
Mahajati Sadan and for equipping the same. 

14. The Provincial Government may call upon the Returna. 
Board to furnish it with any extract from any proceedings 
of the Board or from any record under the control of the,, 
Board or with any information concerning the administra 
tion of the Mahajati Sadan and the Board shall thereupon 
furnish the same without unreasonable delay. 

15. (1) If the Provincial Government, after such Control and inquiry as it may deem fit, is satisfied— 	 auperses- 
(a) that any of the duties imposed or powers conferred Board. 

sion of the 

upon the Board by or under this Act has not 
been performed or exercised or has been perform-
ed or exercised in an imperfect, inefficient or 
unsuitable manner, or 

(b) that adequate financial provision has not been 
made for the performance of any such duty or 
for the proper maintenance of the Mahajati 
Sadan, or 

(c) that the Board has otherwise exceeded or abused 
its powers, 

the Provincial Government may, by notification in the 
Official Gazette, declare the Board to be incompetent or to 
have exceeded or abused its powers, as the case may be, and 
direct that the Board shall be superseded for such period 
not exceeding six months as may be specified in the notifi-
cation. 

(2) When the Board is superseded under the provisions 
of sub-section (1)— 

(a) all trustees and all members of any Committee 
appointed by the Board shall, from the date of 
the publication of the notification under that 
sub-section, vacate their offices as such trustees 
and members, 

(h) all powers and duties of the Board shall, during the 
period of supersession, be exercised and per-
formed by such person or persons as the Provin-
cial Government may appoint in this behalf, 

(c) all funds and other property vested in the Board 
shall, during the period of supersession, vest in 
the Provincial Government, and 

(d) before the expiration of the period of supersession 
the Board shall be reconstituted in accordance 
with the provisions of section 4. 

16. No act done or proceedings taken under this Act 
shall be invalid merely by reason of— 

(a) the existence of any vacancy or any defect in the 
constitution of the Board or any Committee 
appointed by the Board, 



The Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949. 
[West Ben. Act 

Power of 
Provinaiel 
Govern-
ment to 
make rules. 

Power of 
the Board 
to make 
regulations. 

(Sections 17, 18.) 

(b) any person having ceased to be a trustee. or a 
member of any Committee, or 

(c) any omission, defect or irregularity not affecting the 
merits of the case. 

17. (1) The Provincial Government may after previous 
publication 'make rules for carrying out the purposes of this 
Act. 

(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality 
of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or 
any of the following matters, namely : — 

(a) the number, and the manner of selection and 
appointment, of trustees including ex-officio 
trustees, and the periods of time for which such 
trustees shall hold office, 

(b) the circumstances in which and the authority by 
which a trustee appointed under section 4 may 
be removed, 

the manner in which and the authority by which a 
vacancy in the office of a trustee appointed under 
section 4 shall be filled, 

(d) the minimum number of meetings of the Board 
during any year, 

(e) the manner in which a majority decision of the 
trustees shall be obtained by circulation to the 
trustees of the matter requiring decision, 

(f) the appointment of Committees and the delegation 
thereto of any powers exercisable by the Board 
under this Act, 

(g) the erection, equipment, maintenance and manage-
ment of the Mahajati Sadan, 

(h) the purposes for which and the manner in which 
the Mahajati Sadan or any property or fund held 
for the .purposes of the Mahajati Sadan shall be 
used and applied, 

(i) the form of accounts to be kept by the trustees, and 
the audit and publication of such accounts, and 

(j) the appointment, remuneration and conditions of 
service of officers and servants employed by the 
Board. 

(.3) All rules made under this section shall be published 

in the Official Gazette and on such publication shall have 
effect as if they were enacted in this Act. 

18. Subject to such rules as may be made under section 
17, the Board may, with the previous sanction of the Pro-
vincial Government, make regulations to provide for all or 
any of the following matters, namely : — 

(a) the appointment of dates, times and places for 
meetings of the Board and of the Committees, 

(0) 



The Mahajati Sada.n Act, 1949. 

XVI of 1949.] 

(The First and Second Schedules.) 

the manner in which such meetings shall be con-
vened, the quorum necessary for transaction of 
business and the procedure at such meetings, 

(b) defining the powers and duties of the Secretary of 
the Board. 

THE FIRST SCHEDULE. 

(a) Premises No. 166, Chittaranj an. Avenue in Calcut, ' being all that piece or parcel or plot of rent-free laid 
measuring 1 bigha 19 cottalis 4 chittaks 34 square feet more 
or less situate on the east side of the Chittaranjan Avenue 
in the town of Calcutta bounded in the following manner, 
that is to say, on the North by Mitra Lane, on the South by 
Munshi Sadaruddin Lane, on the East by a passage between 
this plot and the plot of land now in the occupation of 
Burrabazar Yubak Sabha and their Gymnasium and on the 
IVest by Chittaranjan Avenue, 

(b) together with all buildings, structures and erections 
standing or being on the said land, which said premises and 
buildings are commonly known as the Mahajati Sadan, and 

(c) together with all rights, easements and appurtenances 
whatsoever belonging or attached or appurtenant to the said 
land, buildings, structures and erections or held or enjoyed 
therewith. 

THE SECOND SCHEDULE. - 

The Mahajati Sadan may, inter alia, be used for the 
following purposes, that is to say :— 

(1) A hall to be erected within the building, Mahajati 
Sadan, may be used for holding public meetings 
and lectures to educate and enlighten the members 
of the public, and particularly the citizens of 
Calcutta, in the present day civic, municipal or 
other cultural and political problems as also for 
holding such other lectures and discourses as may 
be beneficial to the mental and moral outlook of 
the citizens of Calcutta on reasonable terms and 
conditions and on payment of a reasonable fee or 
rent therefor to cover the cost of maintenance and 
depreciation charges. 

(2) Accommodation may be provided in a part of the 
said building for a big library containing literature 
on all subjects of interest to the citizens of 
Calcutta and in as many languages as possible 
with books of reference for the free use of the 
literate citizens of the city of Calcutta. 

Suitable portions of the said building may be— 

(a) used to accommodate a club or association for the 
physical culture of such members of the public 
of Calcutta as may choose to join the same, with 

(3)  



8 	 The Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949. 
[West Ben. Act XVI of 1949.] 

(The Second Schedule. 

permission to such club or association to use 
and utilise a portion of the grounds of the 
Mahajati Sadan remaining open and available 
for such use; 

(b) allotted to the Working Committee of the Indian 
National Congress for accommodating such 
portion of the offices of the All-India Congress 
Committee as it may deem fit; 

made over to the Bengal Provincial Congress 
Committee or the Provincial Congress Organi-
sation of Bengal for their use subject to a right 
of re-entry in the event of the said Committee 
or Organisation— 

ceasing to have a lawful existence for the time 
being, 

(ii) declining to continue or to be in occupation or 
charge of, or relinquishing possession or 

charge of, the portion so made over to it, or 

(iii) failing to-observe and perform any of the terms 
or conditions for such use. 

(e) 

(i) 

WBGP-49/80-2062A. 21NT 


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