Charity Commissioners - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition charity-commissioners

Definition :

Charity Commissioners. The Charity Commissio-ners for England and Wales are a body appointed under the provisions of the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1925, and their powers and duties are to be found in these Acts. They exercise very extensive powers of management and control over charities, including power to authorize sales, exchanges, leases and mortgages of charity property; to frame new schemes where the original terms of the trust can no longer be literally or beneficially complied with; to investigate the accounts of charitable trusts; to sanction proceedings by the trustees and give them advice, and many other powers. There are, however, certain institutions exempted from their jurisdiction, e.g., certain universities and colleges, registered places of worship, and charities wholly supported by voluntary contributions; see s. 62 of the Act of 1853, the construction of which has given rise to great difficulties, and the judgment of Davey, L.J., in Re Clergy Orphan Corporation, 1894 (3) Ch 145. By the (English) Charitable Trusts Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo., c 56), power is given to the Commissioners and also to the High Court to extend the area and objects of town charities in certain cases.

All powers and authorities, by the Endowed Schools Acts (see that title), vested in the Endowed Schools Commissioners by the (English) Endowed Schools Act, 1874, were transferred to the Charity Commissioners, and by Orders in Council made under the (English) Board of Education Act, 1899, the powers of the Commissioners over all endowments held for purely educational purposes have been transferred to the Board of Education (see that title).