Gujarat Govt Strips Charity Commissioner R V Vyas of All Powers

Ahmedabad: The Government of Gujarat has withdrawn all powers from Charity Commissioner R V Vyas and relieved him of his additional responsibilities overseeing the Joint Charity Commissioner’s offices in Ahmedabad and Rajkot, effective immediately. Notably, Vyas was otherwise set to serve as Charity Commissioner until September 2025.

This move comes after the government received several complaints regarding the functioning of the Office of the Charity Commissioner, particularly about the growing backlog of pending cases that were not resolved within the stipulated timeframe.

Additionally, the Gujarat Charity Bar Association raised concerns by sending letters to the government and the law department highlighting issues related to the commissioner’s performance. The association also submitted a memorandum to the law secretary.

In a notification released on Tuesday, the state legal department announced, “The powers granted to the Charity Commissioner under Section 8 of the Gujarat Public Trusts Act, 1950, stand revoked with immediate effect. Likewise, all orders issued by the Charity Commissioner under this section are hereby annulled.”

The authorities did not provide any reasons for this sudden decision. Following this, the responsibilities previously managed by the Joint Charity Commissioner’s office in the Ahmedabad zone have now been reassigned to Dr Yogini Simpi, the Joint Charity Commissioner of Vadodara.

“All administrative and related functions of the charity department are transferred to Dr Yogini Simpi,” the notification stated.

In a separate order, the legal department also appointed C K Joshi, the Joint Charity Commissioner of Bhavnagar, to take additional charge of the Rajkot office, which was previously under Vyas’s supervision. Joshi is instructed to work in Bhavnagar during the first three days of the week and in Rajkot for the remaining days. DeshGujarat