1. This Act may be called the Rajasthan Public Trusts Act, 1959
In this Act, unless the subject or context requires otherwise - 1. Assistant Commissioner means an Assistant Devasthan Commissioner appointed under Sec. 8 and shall include such other officer of Government as may be notified by the State Government to be the Assistant Commissioner of a specified area for the purpose of this Act. 2. Board means the State advisory Board of public trusts established under Sec. 11; 3. Charitable endowment means all property given or endowed for the benefit of. or used as of right by, the community or any section thereof for the support or maintenance of objects of utility to the said community or section; such as resthouses, pathshalas, schools and colleges, houses for feeding the poor and institutions for the advancement of education, medical relief and public health or other objects of a like nature and includes the institution concerned; 4. Commissioner means the Devasthan Commissioner appointed under Sec. 7; 5. Committee means a Regional Advisory Committee for public trusts established under Section. 13; 6. Court means the District Court; 7. Hereditary trustee means the trustee of a public trust succession to whose office devolves by hereditary right or is regulated by usage or is specified provided for by the founder; 8. Math means an institutions for the promotion of a religions presided over by a person whose duty is to engage himself in imparting religious instructions or rendering spiritual service to a body of disciples or who exercise or claims to exercise headship over such a body and includes places or religious worship or instruction which are appurtenant to the institution; 9. Person having interest or any expression signifying a person having interest in a public trust includes - (a) in the case of a temple, a person who is entitled to attend or is in the habit of attending the performance of worship or service in the temple or who is entitled to partaking or is in the habit of partaking in the distribution of gifts thereof. (b) in the case of math, a disciple of the math or a person of the religious persuasion to which the math belongs, (c) in the case of society registered or deemed to be registered under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958(Rajasthan Act 28 of 1958) or under any other analogous law in force in any part of the State, any member of such society, and (d) in the case of any, other public trust, any beneficiary, 10. Public securities means- (a) Securities of the Central Government or any State Government,\ (b) stocks, debentures or shares in railway or other companies in public sector, the interest or dividends on which has been guaranteed by the Central or any State Government, (c) a securities expressly authorized by an order which the State Government makes in this behalf. 11. Public trust means an express or constructive trust for either a public, religious or chartable purpose or both and includes a temple, a math, dharmada or any other religious or charitable endowment or institution and a society formed either for a religious or charitable purpose or for both; 12. register means a register maintained under sub-section (2) of Section 16; 13. Religious endowment or endowment means all property belonging to or giver or endowed for the support of a religious institutions or given or endowed for the performance of any service or charity connected therewith and includes the premises of the religious institution as well as the idols, if any installed therein and any public charity associated with a festival or observance or a religious character, whether connected with a religious institutions or not, but does not include gifts or property made as personal gifts to the trustee or hereditary trustee or working trustee of such institutions or to any service-holder or other employee thereof; 14. Religious institutions or institution means an institutions for the promotion of any religion or persuasion and includes a temple, math and religious establishment or any place of religious worship or religious instruction whether or not appurtenant to such institution; 15. Specific endowment means any property or money endowed for the performance of any specific service or charity in a religious institution; 16. Temple means a place, by whatever designation known, used as a place of public religious worship and dedicated to or for the benefit of or used as of right by a community or any section thereof as a place of public religious worship; 17. Trustee means a person in whom either alone or in association with other persons the trust property is vested and includes a manager; 18. Working trustee means any person who, for the time being, either alone or in association with some other person or persons administers the trust property of any public trust and includes the manager of a public trust as well as-(a) in the case of a math, the head of such math, and (b) in the case of a public trust having its principal office or principal place of business outside the State of Rajasthan the person in charge of the management of the property and administration of the public trust in the State. 19. Words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (Central Act No. 2 of 1882), have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act.