Part I: From Mission Land to Mandir Lease: How Maharashtra Handed a Rs 700-Crore Christian Trust Property to a Private Religious Body

By
Vivek Bhavsar
-
27
1636

A century-old Wilson College Gymkhana plot—once registered with the Indian Canadian Mission under the Scottish Church – United Church of North Indian Trust Association (UCFITA) and used by the John Wilson Education Society—has been quietly leased by the Government of Maharashtra to the Jain International Organisation.  The move, cloaked in administrative legality, raises fundamental questions about property rights, faith-based favoritism, and accountability inside Mantralaya.

X : @vivekbhavsar

Mumbai: In one of South Mumbai’s costliest precincts—across from Girgaum Chowpatty and a short walk from Marine Drive—lies a 10,257-square-metre open ground known for over a century as the Wilson College Gymkhana.  The land, entered in the Bhuleshwar Survey Register as Cadastral Survey No. 471, was first recorded in 1885 under the Indian Canadian Mission of the Scottish Church (UCFITA).

The Mission later vested day-to-day possession in the John Wilson Education Society, which ran Wilson College—one of the earliest English-medium institutions in western India.  Generations of students have used the ground for sports and community events, its stone gateposts still bearing the initials WCG. The heritage has been erased now. The Jain International Organisation (JIO) was granted a 30-year lease of this land by the Government of Maharashtra in March 2025. The State mutated itself into the role of ‘holder’ and JIO became the ‘lessee’. Overnight, the educational estate of a missionary trust became the property of a private religious organisation without public notice, auction, or consent from the original trustees.

A Legacy of Learning—Redrafted by Bureaucracy

Historical records show that the British-era Bombay Improvement Trust had only supervisory control over city lands used for charitable purposes.  On 21 September 1909, the Trust executed a Tenancy at Will with Rev. Dr. Dugald Mackichan, Principal of Wilson College, confirming the Gymkhana’s educational use.  Government Resolution No. 11744 of 1911 renewed it under the Secretary of State for India in Council.

In 1956, a fresh 30-year lease was signed with Dr. Judson W. Airan, then Principal of Wilson College, explicitly noting that the site was “for the benefit of students and staff.”  No record shows any violation or commercial exploitation.  Yet by December 2023, the Collector of Mumbai City declared ‘Shart Bhang’ a breach of conditions and deleted Wilson College’s name from the property card. ‘Shart Bhang’: A Legal Fiction

The order, No. CSLR/RB/Bhuleshwar/CS-471/Shart Bhang/2023 dated 5 December 2023, claimed the trust had failed to fulfil lease terms.  But legal experts point out that the Government was never the owner of the land—it was only a supervisory custodian.  “You cannot invoke Shart Bhang on property you do not own,” says a retired Assistant Charity Commissioner who reviewed the documents.  “The original title remains with the missionary trust; the State’s action is ultra vires.”

Just five days after the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal upheld the State’s ‘temporary reentry’ on March 11, 2024, the Revenue and Forest Department issued Memo No. LAND-2524/Case No. 03/L-2/16-3-2024, proposing that the plot be leased to the Jain International Organisation.  By 11 July 2024, Collector’s staff had handed physical possession to JIO.  On 18 March 2025, the deed—No. BBE-1/1864/2025—was registered.

Five days were enough for the government to erase 140 years of history.

Excerpt from official property card showing deletion of the Wilson College Trust’s name and entry of the Government of Maharashtra as holder. (Source: City Survey Office, Bhuleshwar Division)

Violating the spirit and the law. 

Sections 37 and 38 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code <https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s36a4cbdaedcbda0fa8ddc7ea32073c475/uploads/2025/02/202502111187931379.pdf> protect trust or charitable lands from diversion without notice, valuation, and public hearing.  Section 36 of the Bombay Public Trusts Act (1950) <https://charity.maharashtra.gov.in/Portals/0/Files/CircularSerialwise/81.pdf> requires prior sanction of the Charity Commissioner before any change in tenure or use.  None of these mandatory steps appears in the official chain of documents.

Even the Bombay High Court and Revenue Tribunal orders cited in the property card merely validated the Collector’s custody pending clarification—they never authorised a fresh lease.  “Officials used routine procedural orders as legal cover for a predetermined outcome,” says a senior former revenue officer.  “It’s an administrative sleight of hand.”

Also Read: From Nationalisation to Foreignisation: The Silent Takeover of India’s Banking Sovereignty

The ₹700-Crore Question

Real-estate valuers estimate that a freehold parcel of this size along the Marine Drive-Girgaum belt would fetch ₹700 to ₹800 crore at current market rates.  Yet the 30-year lease to JIO carries a nominal rent of barely ₹651 per year, unchanged from colonial-era rates.

The Government Land Disposal Policy (2011) and CVC guidelines (2016) mandate public auction or tender for any commercial or institutional lease of government or quasi-public land.  None was conducted.  The opaque transfer amounts to a notional loss of hundreds of crores and a clear breach of transparency norms.

Pre-Planned Favour or Faith Politics?

Inside Mantralaya, senior bureaucrats privately admit the file moved “unusually fast.”  One officer notes that “instructions came directly from the top after community representations.”  The Jain International Organisation, with influential industrial and political patrons, had been seeking a South Mumbai presence since 2022.  By mid-2024, its banner stood where Wilson College Gymkhana once did.

For observers, the episode fits a larger pattern of faith-based selectivity.  Earlier this year, in Pune, when a Jain trust’s hostel and temple property faced sale to a developer, the Charity Commissioner swiftly imposed status quo after community protests—ultimately restoring the property to the Jain trust.  In contrast, when a Christian educational trust lost its land through a questionable “Shart Bhang,” the State acted as aggressor, not guardian.

Double Standards, Single Administration

The Pune case—Seth Hirachand Nemchand Smarak Trust vs Gokhale Constructions—saw rapid State intervention to protect religious sentiment.  In Mumbai, the same government ignored due process that protected the missionary trust’s property.  “Why is one community’s faith a reason for protection and another’s a technicality for dispossession?” asks a senior lawyer associated with the Christian mission.

Expert Voices Call for Probe

Former Additional Chief Secretary on condition of anonymity tells TheNews21, “When property cards are mutated without auction, valuation, or Charity Commissioner clearance, it constitutes administrative fraud.  The government acts as trustee of such lands, not as proprietors.”

Urban-land economist adds, “The 2025 lease should be reviewed by the CAG or the Lokayukta.  Otherwise, this precedent will allow politically connected organisations to convert legacy trust lands across Maharashtra.”

Inside the Missing Paper Trail

RTI applications filed by TheNews21 seek:

  • The Collector’s full note-sheet and valuation files leading to the 2023 order;
  • The 2024 Revenue Department memo authorising the JIO lease;
  • Legal opinion, if any, obtained from the Law & Judiciary Department.

Sources say the Revenue file was moved under “urgent disposal” and classified confidential.

Silence of the Custodians

Neither the Education Department, which oversees missionary institutions, nor the Charity Commissioner’s Office has commented.  Church representatives claim no notice was served.  “We learnt from the property-card update,” says a spokesperson for the Scottish Church (UCFITA).  “A government cannot claim breach when it was never the lessor in the first place.”

A Heritage Rewritten

 Standing opposite Girgaum Chowpatty on Marine Drive, the old Wilson College Gymkhana building lies in disrepair — its roof corroded, its field overgrown with dry grass. There is no visible signboard of the new lessee, the Jain International Organisation. Yet, on paper, this decaying structure represents a ₹700-crore transfer of faith and title — proof of how silently Maharashtra’s bureaucracy can rewrite ownership, law, and legacy when power tilts the scales.  

If the State can declare a missionary trust’s land its own and re-lease it within months, what prevents tomorrow’s re-interpretation of any charitable estate—from schools to hospitals to temples?

What Lies Ahead

TheNews21 Investigations Unit will continue tracing the approvals and correspondences that enabled this conversion—from Mantralaya corridors to district-collectorate notings.  At stake is not merely one Gymkhana ground but the integrity of Maharashtra’s public-trust governance itself.

This story marks Part I of The Sacred Land Transfers series—an ongoing probe into how charitable and religious properties across the State are being quietly rewritten through administrative orders and political favour.

(All documents on record: Survey Register No. 40 / Page 46 – Bhuleshwar Division, Property Card Verification No. 230100810004459)

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