Religious Societies Act, 1880

This 1880 Act gives bodies of people organised to maintain religious worship a simplified way to appoint trustees and hold property, though it expressly does not apply to Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists, or to any group the Provincial Government excludes by notification. Section 2 lets such a body appoint a new trustee, when none is prescribed by its governing document or the prescribed method cannot be used, either by agreement of the body or by a vote of at least two-thirds of members present at a meeting. Section 3 requires that appointment to be recorded in a signed memorandum, witnessed by at least two people, and registered under Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908.

Section 4 then vests the property automatically in the new trustee (jointly with any continuing trustees) without any separate conveyance, on the same trusts as before, and Section 5 preserves any other lawful methods of appointing trustees or transferring property. Section 6 allows the body to dissolve itself if at least three-fifths of its members agree at a convened meeting, with the body's property, claims and debts settled according to its own rules or, failing that, as the meeting decides; disputes go to the principal civil court of the district. Section 7 forbids distributing any leftover property among members on dissolution; it must instead go to another religious or charitable body chosen by a three-fifths vote, or by the court.

Section 9 lets any interested person petition the High Court for its opinion on questions such as who counts as a member of the body or whether an appointment was valid, and that opinion carries the force of a declaratory decree.