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The Bombay High Court has discharged a managing trustee from a prosecution under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, holding that a public charitable trust cannot automatically be treated as a company or association of persons under Section 34.
Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale found that the complaint did not describe A. P. Hinduja’s operational role or allege how he was responsible for the institution’s day-to-day conduct. His office as managing trustee, without specific factual allegations, could not create vicarious criminal liability.
The court said continuing the case would amount to an abuse of process and allowed the petition, setting aside the proceedings against him. The judgment was pronounced on 1 October 2026.
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