Whereas it is intended to erect and maintain at Bombay a Museum as a memorial of the visit in the year 1905 of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to Bombay;

And whereas certain land has been set apart and large sums of money have been and are being subscribed for these purposes;

And whereas three Trustees have been provisionally appointed to take the custody of the said moneys;

And whereas it is expedient to make provision for the erection, maintenance and management of the Museum and for the vesting and management of the said land and moneys and for the appointment of a permanent Board of Trustees;

It is hereby enacted as follows:—

## Section 1. Short title and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called ⁴[the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya] Act, 1909, and (2) It shall come into force at once.

## Section 2. Property vested in the Board.—All the estate, right, title and interest of ⁵[Government] together with all other estates, rights, titles and interests in and to the land specified in the Schedule to this Act and all moneys now in the custody of the three Trustees provisionally appointed to take the custody of the moneys subscribed for the purposes of erecting or maintaining at Bombay a Museum as a memorial of the visit in the year 1905 of His Royal, Highness the Prince of Wales to Bombay and all the other property whether immovable or moveable, which has been or may hereafter be given, devised, bequeathed, transferred or otherwise acquired for the said purposes shall vest in the permanent Board of Trustees constituted by this Act on trust for the erection on the land specified in the said Schedule of a Museum to be called “⁶[The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Museum)]” and for the maintenance and management of the said land and Museum.

## Section 3. Constitution and powers of the Board.—(1) There shall be constituted for the purposes of this Act a permanent Board of Trustees to be called “The Trustee of ⁷[the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya]” and such Board (hereinafter called “the Board”) shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and in the name of “The Trustees of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India” shall sue and be sued, and shall have power to ⁸[acquire and hold immovable or moveable property, to let on hire, lease or mortgage any immovable property vesting in them] to enter into contracts, and to do all acts necessary for and consistent with the purposes of this Act;

⁹[Provided that the Board shall not have power to mortgage any land specified in the Schedule which is included within lines drawn parallel, to and at a distance of twenty feet from, above the plinths of the fro it corner towers of the present Museum building and extending from the Rampart Row boundary to the Esplanade Road boundary which area contains by admeasurement 14,606 square yards, be the same a little more or less, and is for greater clearness delineated on the plan referred to in Section 2 of the Prince of Wales Museum (Amending) Act, 1913 (Bom. VII of 1913), or any building thereon.]

(2) The Board shall consist of the following members, namely:—

¹⁰***

(b) the Collector of Bombay,

¹¹[(b-1) the Director of Act, Maharashtra State);]

¹²[(c) the Dean, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art;]

¹³[(c-1) the Director, Archaeology and Museum, Maharashtra State;]

¹⁴[(d) the Superintendent, Department of Archeology, Western Circle;

(dd) the Superintendent, Department of Archeology, South Western Circle;]

(e) such two members of the Municipal Corporation of the City of Bombay as shall from time to time be elected by the said Corporation in accordance with such regulations as may from time to time be made in this behalf by the said Corporation; provided that the election shall be by ¹⁵[ballot;]

¹⁶[(f) three other persons be nominated by the ¹⁷[¹⁸[State] Government];]

¹⁹[(g) so long as the collection installed in the Museum by the Bombay Natural History Society remain in the Museum, two other persona to be nominated by the Managing Committee of the Bombay Natural History Society;

(h) so long as the loan collection of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society remains in the museum, one other person to be nominated by the Bombay branch of that Society;]

²⁰[(hh) one other person elected at a joint meeting of the Trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust constituted by a trust deed dated the eleventh day of March 1932 and of the Trustees of the Sir Ratan Tata Charities constituted by the will and codicil of Sir Ratan Tata dated the twenty-first day of March 1913 and the twenty-ninth day of February 1916, respectively by a majority of votes of the Trustees present and voting at such meeting, the Chairman of such meeting having a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes;]

(i) one other person to be nominated by the Syndicate of the University of Bombay; and

(j) four other persons to be nominated by the Board, if the Board be desire, for such period as the Board may consider desirable.]

(3) In the case of ex-offico members the person for the time being performing it the duties any of the offices mentioned in sub-section (2) shall act as a member.

(4) All acts done by a majority of the members present and voting at a meeting of the Board shall be deemed to be acts of the Board.

(5) No act of the Board shall be deemed to be invalid merely by reason of any vacancy in, or defect in the constitution of, the Board.

(6) The Board may appoint a person to act as their Secretary.

(7) Orders for the payment of money on behalf of the Board shall be deemed to be sufficiently authenticated if signed by two members and countersigned by the Secretary.

3-A. Term of office: election and appointment of new member if a vacancy.—(1) Members of the Board other than ex-officio members shall, save as herein otherwise provided, held office for a period of three years.

(2) If a member other than an ex-officio member—

(a) dies, or

(b) is absent from the meetings of the Board for more than six consecutive months, or

(c) leaves the Presidency of Bombay with the intention of being absent there from for more than six consecutive months, or

(d) desires to be discharged, or

(e) refuses to act or becomes incapable of acting,

a new member may be elected or nominated, as the case may be, in the same manner as was the member in whose place he is to be elected or nominated and he shall hold office for so long only as such member would have held it if the vacancy had not occurred.

3-B. Power of Board to lend, exchange, sell or destroy article in collection.—Subject to the provisions of any rules made by the ²³[Provincial Government] in this behalf the Board may, from time to time—

(a) deliver by way of loan to any person the whole or any portion of, or any article contained in, any collection vested in them under this Act;

(b) exchange or sell articles contained in any such collection and take or purchase, in the place of such articles, such articles as may in their opinion be worthy of preservation in the Museum;

(d) remove and destroy any article contained in any such collection:

Provided that nothing herein contained shall authorise the Trustees to lend, exchange, sell, present, remove or destroy any article when such lending, exchange, sale, presentation, removal or destruction, as the case may be, is precluded by the terms on which the Trustees may have received any such article.]

3-C. Power of Board to keep collections not belonging to them.—Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, the Board may, if they think fit, assume the custody and administration of collections which are not the property of the Board for the purposes of their trust under this Act and keep and preserve such collections either in the Museum or elsewhere.]

## Section 4. Officers and servants to be public servants.—All officers and servants employed by the Board shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of the Indian Pena Code (XVI of 1860):

Provided that this section shall not apply to persons in the service of any contractor employed by the Board.

## Section 5. Rules.—(1) The ²⁵[Provincial Government] may make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide—

(a) for the manner in which meetings of the Board shall be convened, the quorum necessary for the transaction of business, and the procedure at such meetings;

(b) for the appointment of committees of she Board, and the powers of expenditure and control which may be delegated to such committees;

(c) for the erection of the Museum on the land specified in the Schedule to this Act and for the maintenance and management of the said land and Museum, the care and custody of the objects deposited in the Museum, and the conditions under which the public shall have access to the land or Museum;

(d) for the maintenance, management and disposal of any other immovable property vested in the Board and for the investment and re-investment in public securities or otherwise and for the safe custody of the funds of the Board;

(e) for the form of accounts to be kept by the Board, and for the audit and publication of such accounts; and

(f) for the application to the officers and servants employed by the Board of the rules which apply to the civil servants of the Crown, or to any class of such civil servants;

²⁶[(g) for the payment of contributions at such rates and subject to such conditions as may from time to time be prescribe by the Board to any provident fund which may be established by the Board for the benefit of the Officers and servants employed by it.]

## Section 6. Power to borrow from Central or Provincial Government of person.—The Board may from time to time borrow or reborrow and take up at interest from ²⁸[the Central or the Provincial Government] or with the previous sanction of the ²⁹[Provincial Government] from any person any sum necessary for the purpose of defraying any costs, charges or expenses incurred or to be incurred by them to carry out the purposes of this Act, or for the purpose of repaying either in whole or part any sums hereafter borrowed or or owing by the Board.

³⁰***

## Section 7. Mortgage of immovable property, of revenues.—(1) The Board may borrow or reborrow any such sum as aftersaid from any person on the security of any immovable property vesting in them other than the property mentioned in the proviso to Section 3 or of their revenues or of both of these securities.

(2) For the purpose of securing the repayment of any sum so borrowed with interest thereon they may mortgage to the person by or on behalf of whom such sum is advanced any such immovable property or revenues of both of these securities.]

## Section 8. Provision as to sinking funds.—(1) In respect of every loan raised by the Board for a term exceeding one year, the Board shall either pay off the money borrowed by equal yearly or half-yearly instalments of principal or of principal and interest, or they shall in every year set apart as a sinking fund and accumulate in the way of compound interest by investing the same in the purchase of public securities or in such other securities as the ³³[Provincial Government] may approve in this behalf such sum or sums as will, with accumulations in the way of compound interest, be sufficient after payment of all expenses to pay off the moneys so borrowed ³⁴[within stich period not exceeding sixty years from the date of the raising of the loan as the ³⁵[Provincial Government] may in each case direct.]

(2) The Board may at any time apply the whole or any part of a sinking fund set apart under this section in or towards the discharge of the moneys for the repayment of which the found has been established: Provided that they pay into the fund each time that interest would have been received by the Board in respect of the sinking fund or the part of the sinking found so applied, and accumulate, until the whole of the moneys borrowed are discharged, a sum equivalent to the interest which would have been so received.]

## Section 9. Annual examination of inking fund.—The sinking fund established for the liquidation of any loan shall be subject to annual examination by the Accountant General, Bombay, who shall ascertain whether the cash and the value of the securities at the credit of the fund are actually equal to the amount which would have been accumulated, had investments been regularly made, and had the rate of interest as originally estimated been obtained thereon. The Board shall pay forthwith into the sinking fund any amount which the Accountant General may certify to be deficient, unless the ³⁷[Provincial Government] specially sanction a gradual re-adjustment.]

## Section 10. Issue of debentures.—(1) In respect of any sinking fund which by this Act the Board are directed or empowered to invest in public securities or in such other securities as the ³⁹[Provincial Government] may approve in this behalf, it shall be lawful for the Board to reserve and set apart for the purposes of any such investment any debentures to be issued on account of any loan for which the sanction of the ⁴⁰[Provincial Government] shall have been duly obtained, provided that the intention so to reserve and set apart such debentures shall have been notified as a condition of the issue of the loan.

(2) The issue of any such debentures direct to and in the name of “the Wales Trustees of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India” ⁴¹[or, as the case may be, “The Trustees of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya”] shall not operate to extinguish or cancel such debentures but every debenture so issued as if issued to, and in the name of, any other person.

(3) The purchase by, or the transfer, assignment or endorsement to, the Board of any debenture issued by the Board shall not operate to extinguish or cancel any such debenture, but the same shall be valid add negotiable in the same manner and to the same extent as if held by, or transferred, assigned or endorsed to, any other person.]

## Section 11. Form of debentures.—(1) When money is raised by the Board on debentures the debentures shall be in such form as the Board, with the previous sanction of the ⁴³[Provincial Government], shall from time to time determine.

(2) The holder of any debenture in any form duly authorised under that section may obtain in exchange therefor, upon such terms as the Board shall from time to time determine, a debenture in any other form and authorised by the Board.

(3) Every debenture issued by the Board shaft be transferable by endorsement.

(4) The right to payment of the moneys secured by any such debentures and to sue in respect thereof shall vest in the respective holders thereof for the time being without any preference by reason of some of such debentures being prior in date to others.]

## Section 12. Prohibition of endorsements on allonges.—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 16 of the ⁴⁵Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (XXVI of 1881), the holder of any debenture issued under the provisions of this Act and transferable by endorsement shall not be said to endorse the debenture, or be called the endorser thereof, if when he signs the same for the purpose of negotiation he subscribes his signature for that purpose elsewhere than on the back of the debenture itself.]

## Section 13. Issue of stock certificates.—(1) The Board may at their discretion at the time of issue or at any time during the currency of any debentures issued under the provisions of this Act, upon the application of the subscriber for, or holed of, any such debentures, issue to him, in lieu of the debentures deliverable to or held by him, a certificate in the nature of a stock certificate in respect of each loan to which such debentures relate, which shall; be in sash form, as the Board, with the previous consent of the ⁴⁷[Provincial Government], shall from time to time determine.

(2) The Board shall upon the application of the holder of a stock certificate convert the same into debentures of the loan to which it relates.]

## Section 14. Payment to survivors of joint payees.—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 45 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 (IX of 1872), when money in respect of any debenture or stock certificate issued under the provisions of this Act is payable to two or more persons jointly and either or any of them dies, the money shall be payable to the survivor or survivors of those persons.

(2) Nothing herein contained shall affect any claim which the representative of the deceased person may have against the survivor or survivors in respect of the money payable jointly to him or them and the deceased.]

## Section 15. Power or one or more joint holders to grant receipt.—Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 45 of the ⁵⁰Indian Contract Act, 1872 (IX of 1872), where two or more persons are joint holders of any debenture at stock certificate issued under the provisions of this Act, any one of those possess may give as effectual receipt for any interest or dividend payable in respect of such debenture or stock certificate, unless notice to the contrary has been given to the Board by any other of those persons.]

## Section 16. Notice of trust not receivable.—No notice of any trust in respect of any debenture, or stock certificate issued by the Board shall be receivable by the Board.]

## Section 17. Board empowered to make rules.—(1) The Board may from time to time make rules prescribing:—

(a) the amounts for which debentures and stock certificates may be issued;

(b) the mode is which payment of interest in respect of all debentures and stock certificates issued under the provisions of this Act is to be made, recorded and acknowledged;

(c) the circumstances in which such debentures and stock certificates must be renewed before farther payment of interest thereon can be chained;

(d) the fees to be levied in respect of the issue of renewed debentures and steak certificates;

(e) the form of transfer to be used, the formalities to be observed and the fees to be levied on a, transfer of stock;

(f) the form in which debentures and stock certificates delivered for renewal are to be receipted;

(g) the proof to be produced by persons applying for duplicate debentures and stock certificates;

(h) the circumstances and manner in which duplicate debentures and stock certificates may be issued in case of debentures and stock certificates alleged to have been wholly or partly lost or destroyed and the period after which interest may be paid or a duplicate be issued in case of such debentures and stock certificates and the fees to be levied in respect of the issue of duplicate debentures and stock certificates;

(i) the nature and amount of indemnity to be given by a person applying for the payment of interest on debentures alleged to have been wholly or partly lost or destroyed, or the issue of duplicate debentures;

(j) generally the measures to be adopted for carrying out the purpose of this Act.

(2)(a) No rule, or alteration or revocation of a rule, shall have effect until the same shall have been approved by the ⁵³[Provincial Government], and such approval shall have been published in the ⁵⁴[Official Gazette]; and no rule, or alteration or revocation of rules, shall be approved by the ⁵⁵[Provincial Government] until the same shall have been published for three weeks sue festively in the said Gazette.

(b) It shall be lawful for the ⁵⁶[Provincial Government] at any time by notification in the said Gazette to cancel any rule published under the provisions of this section.]

## Section 18. Cunstruction of reference in any instrument, etc.—On the commencement of the Prince of Wales Museum (Amendment) Act, 2001 (Mah. XXV of 2001) any reference to “the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India” in any other enactment or rules regulations, enactment or by-laws, notifications or orders issued under any enactment or in any instrument, document or proceedings under its original name shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be deemed and construed to be the reference to “the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Museum)”.]

SCHEDULE

The semi-circular plot of land opposite the Sailors' Home and Elphinstone College, bounded on the north by Rampart Row, measuring 31, 957 square yards or thereabouts and bearing Survey No. 8433 of the City of Bombay.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Act, 1909
[Bombay Act 3 of 1909][19th August, 1909]

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Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Act, 1909[Bombay Act 3 of 1909][19th August, 1909]

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Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Act, 1909
[Bombay Act 3 of 1909][19th August, 1909]