Office how
vacated.

70. The office of
a trustee is vacated by his death or by his discharge from his office.

Discharge of trustee.

71. The trustee
may be discharged from his office only as follows :—

(a) by the extinction
of the trust;

(b) by the
completion of his duties under the trust;

(c) by such means
as may be prescribed by the instrument of/trust;

(d) by appointment
under this Act of a new trustee in his place;

(e) by consent of himself and the beneficiary,
or, where there are more beneficiaries than one, all the beneficiaries being
competent to contract; or

(f) by the Court to which a petition for his discharge is
presented under this Act.

Petition to be discharged from trust.

72. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 11, every
trustee may apply by petition to a principal Civil Court of original
jurisdiction to be discharged from his office; and if the court finds that
there is sufficient reason for such discharge, it may discharge him accordingly,
and direct his costs to be paid out of the trust-property. But where there is
no such reason, the court shall not discharge him, unless a proper person can
be found to take his place.

Appointment of new trustees on death, etc.

73. Whenever any person appointed a trustee disclaims, or
any trustee, either original or substituted, dies, or is for a continuous
period of six months absent from India, or leaves India for the purpose of
residing abroad, or is declared an insolvent, or desires to be discharged from
the trust, or refuses or becomes, in the opinion of a principal Civil Court of
original jurisdiction, unfit or personally incapable to act in the trust, or
accepts an inconsistent trust, a new trustee may be appointed in his place by—

(a) the person
nominated for that purpose by the instrument of trust (if any), or

(b) if there be no such person, or no
such person able and willing to act, the author of the trust if he be alive and
competent to contract, or the surviving or continuing trustees or trustee for
the time being, or legal representative of the last surviving and continuing
trustee, or (with the consent of the Court) the retiring trustees, if they all
retire simultaneously, or (with the like consent) the last retiring trustee.

Every such appointment
shall be by writing under the hand of the person making it.

On an appointment of a new trustee the number of trustees
may be increased.

The Official Trustee may, with his consent and by the order of
the court, be appointed under this section, in any case in which only one
trustee is to be appointed and such trustee is to be the sole trustee.

The provisions of this section relative to a trustee who is
dead include the case of a person nominated trustee in a will but dying before
the testator, and those relative to a continuing trustee include a refusing or
retiring trustee if willing to act in the execution of the power.

Appointment by Court.

74. Whenever any such vacancy or disqualification occurs and
it is found impracticable to appoint a new trustee under section 73, the
beneficiary may, without instituting a suit, apply by petition to a principal
Civil Court of original jurisdiction for the appointment of a trustee or a new
trustee, and the Court may appoint a trustee or a new trustee accordingly.

Rule for
selecting new trustees.

In appointing new trustees, the Court shall have regard (a)
to the wishes of the author of the trust as expressed in or to be inferred from
the instrument of trust; (b) to the wishes of the person, if any, empowered to
appoint new trustees; (c) to the question whether the appointment will promote
or impede the execution of the trust; and (d) where there are more
beneficiaries than one, to the interests of all such beneficiaries.

Vesting of trust-property in new trustees.

75. Whenever any new trustee is
appointed under section 73 or section 74, all the trust-property for the time
being vested in the surviving or continuing trustees or trustee, or in the
legal representative of any trustee, shall become vested in such new trustee,
either solely or jointly with the surviving or continuing trustees or trustee,
as the case may require.

Powers of new
trustees.

Every new trustee so appointed, and every trustee appointed
by a Court either before or after the passing of this Act, shall have the same
powers, authorities and discretions, and shall in all respects act, as if he
had been originally nominated a trustee by the author of the trust.

Survival of trust.

76. On the death or discharge of one of several co-trustees,
the trust survives and the trust-property passes to the others, unless the
instrument of trust expressly declares otherwise.