Trust deed amendment power upheld: express trustee authority made civil court recourse unnecessary for registration purposes.

Where a trust deed expressly empowers the trustees to amend, alter, change or modify the deed by the prescribed majority, recourse to the civil court is unnecessary. The cited Supreme Court principle was read as permitting rectification by the settlor or through a competent civil court where rectification is otherwise required, but not as mandating court intervention despite an express contractual power of amendment. The rectified trust deed was therefore validly relied upon, and registration under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act was upheld.

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Issues: Whether a trust deed could be amended by the trustees without approaching the civil court when the deed itself conferred such power, and whether the rectified deed could be relied upon for grant of registration under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The trust deed contained clauses empowering the trustees, subject to the stated conditions, to amend, alter, change, or modify the deed by the prescribed majority. Where the settlor has expressly conferred such power, recourse to the civil court is unnecessary. The principle in the cited Supreme Court decision was understood as recognising that a trust deed may be rectified either by the settlor or through a competent civil court where such rectification is otherwise required, but it did not lay down that the civil court must be approached despite an express power of amendment in the deed itself.

Conclusion: The rectified trust deed was validly relied upon, and the direction to grant registration was upheld.

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