Comparisons: Complete Notes (Part M)

Part M places the trust in context: first by distinguishing it from neighbouring legal relationships, and then by comparing the Indian Trusts Act with English trust law. This consolidated note covers Topics 55 and 56.

1. Trust and Related Relationships

Relationship	Key difference from a trust
Contract	Needs agreement, consideration and privity; remedies mainly personal; ordinary limitation. A trust needs none of these, gives proprietary remedies, and has no limitation for following property against an express trustee
Agency	The principal remains owner and controls the agent, who acts on his behalf and in his name. A trustee owns and acts in his own right, for the beneficiary's benefit (Holdsworth, 1957); both are fiduciaries
Bailment	The bailee has possession, not ownership, and only of movable goods. A trustee has ownership of any kind of property
Gift	Passes full ownership with no continuing obligation; revocable only in limited cases. A trust separates ownership from benefit and imposes continuing duties
Debt	The debtor owns the money and owes an equivalent; the creditor is unsecured. Trust money remains the beneficiary's and survives the recipient's insolvency if identifiable; intention, shown by separation and purpose, decides

2. Indian and English Trust Law

The 1882 Act adapted English equity: it rejected dual ownership, introduced its own terminology, listed implied trusts in Chapter IX, confined itself to private trusts, and treated words of "fullest confidence" as capable of creating a trust. Since then English law has developed further:

Relief for honest trustees (Trustee Act 1925, Section 61); India has none.
Court approved variation (Variation of Trusts Act 1958); India has none.
General power of investment, collective delegation and professional remuneration (Trustee Act 2000); India relies on Sections 20, 47 and 50.
A 125-year perpetuity period (2009); India keeps life in being plus minority.
A charities regulator (Charities Act 2011); India has a patchwork.
Broader constructive trusts (Stack v Dowden, 2007); India has a largely closed list after the repeal of Section 94.

The certainties, Saunders v Vautier, the fiduciary principle, tracing and the prudent person standard are common ground. English decisions are persuasive in India where the Act is silent, but courts do not import doctrines that conflict with the Act or with Indian institutions.

⚠ Key point

Part M in one line: a trust is distinguished from contract, agency, bailment, gift and debt by the trustee's ownership burdened with a continuing obligation for another, enforceable by proprietary remedies; and the Indian Act, an 1882 adaptation of English equity, shares its core principles but lacks the reforms English law has since made on relief, variation, investment, delegation, remuneration, perpetuity and charity regulation.

3. The Topics of This Part

Topic 55: Trust distinguished from contract, agency, bailment, gift and debt
Topic 56: The Indian Trusts Act and English trust law