In those days Wills were almost unknown and their validity was scarcely recognized. The consequence was that for many years successive executors neglected the provisions of Pachaiyappa’s Will and misappropriated the funds therein settled. Fortunately, the matter came to the notice of Sir Herbert Compton, the then Advocate-General, who thereupon filed information in the Supreme Court and obtained a decree against the person finally liable for the performance of the charities and also an account of the funds amounting with accumulated interest to many lakhs of rupees. As the person against whom the decree was passed could only pay a small portion of his liabilities.
Mr. George Norton, the next Advocate-General, succeeded in recovering a large quantity of jewels and thereby realizing in respect of the claim a total sum of about eight lakhs of rupees. Thereupon the Supreme Court, in the exercise of its equitable jurisdiction, in a further decree passed in 1841 prepared a scheme, where by, in due harmony with the provisions of the Will and without trenching upon any specific religious or benevolent bequents therein mentioned, it was directed that all accumulations beyond one lakh of pagodas (four and half alkhs of rupees) should be devoted to educational establishments in various parts of the Presidency, and particularly in the city of Madras.
The control of these endowments became vested by law in the Board of Revenue, who under instructions from Lord Elphinstone’s Government, embodied the scheme of the Supreme Court in a kind of Letters Patent, and created a body of Hindu Trustees to administer the whole of the charities and carry out the charities and carry out the benevolent intentions of the magnanimous testator.
Mr. George Norton, the next Advocate-General, succeeded in recovering a large quantity of jewels and thereby realizing in respect of the claim a total sum of about eight lakhs of rupees. Thereupon the Supreme Court, in the exercise of its equitable jurisdiction, in a further decree passed in 1841 prepared a scheme, where by, in due harmony with the provisions of the Will and without trenching upon any specific religious or benevolent bequents therein mentioned, it was directed that all accumulations beyond one lakh of pagodas (four and half alkhs of rupees) should be devoted to educational establishments in various parts of the Presidency, and particularly in the city of Madras.
The control of these endowments became vested by law in the Board of Revenue, who under instructions from Lord Elphinstone’s Government, embodied the scheme of the Supreme Court in a kind of Letters Patent, and created a body of Hindu Trustees to administer the whole of the charities and carry out the charities and carry out the benevolent intentions of the magnanimous testator.