The week their son turned 18, Meena and Rakesh were told two things they had not seen coming. The bank would no longer let them operate his savings account. The hospital would no longer treat a parent's signature as valid consent. The document that answers both is a guardianship order passed by the Local Level Committee of their district under section 14 of the National Trust Act 1999.
Short on time? Read the comparison first. Many parents apply under the wrong law, and some apply for a power they do not actually need.
| Route | Who it fits | Who decides | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 14, National Trust Act 1999 | An adult with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability or severe multiple disability | The Local Level Committee in your district | A Form B order covering the person and the property |
| Section 14, RPWD Act 2016 | Anyone with a disability who has had support and still cannot take a binding decision | A district court, or the authority your State has notified | Joint decision making, limited to a period and to specific decisions |
| No guardianship at all | An adult who can decide with support in place | Nobody. Section 13 of the RPWD Act 2016 protects the right | Legal capacity kept intact |
Route one. Section 2, clause j of the National Trust Act 1999 covers autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, a combination of two or more, and severe multiple disability. The statute uses the older term; the condition it means is intellectual disability. Outside that list, the Local Level Committee is not your forum.
Route two. Section 14 of the RPWD Act 2016 applies where a person “had been provided adequate and appropriate support but is unable to take legally binding decisions”. Its Explanation defines limited guardianship as joint decision making, limited to a period and to specific decisions. The decision maker is a district court or an authority the State notifies, in the manner the State prescribes, so the forum varies. Confirm yours with the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.
Route three. Section 13 of the RPWD Act 2016 says persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others, including the right to own or inherit property and control their financial affairs. Section 14 engages only after support was tried and was not enough, so guardianship is a last resort in law. If your adult child can decide with help, do not go looking for an order.
One provision sits across all of this. Section 14(2) of the RPWD Act 2016 says every guardian appointed under any other law for a person with disability “shall be deemed to function as a limited guardian”. The Act does not spell out what that does to an existing order. In practice the National Trust still runs the committee route, and the Reserve Bank still points banks at the certificate of the competent authority under the National Trust Act. Ask your committee to record which decisions the guardianship covers.
A fourth door that is not a door. The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 is not a guardianship law. It repealed the Mental Health Act 1987 and did not carry forward guardian appointment for adults. It gives every adult a nominated representative under section 14 and an advance directive under section 5, and its definition of mental illness in section 2 expressly excludes what the statute calls mental retardation. If your adult child has an intellectual disability and no psychiatric illness, this is the wrong Act. See our guide to the Mental Healthcare Act 2017.
The National Trust publishes no application fee, and no deadline by which a committee must decide. Do not accept a figure quoted verbally. Ask the convener in writing what is payable, and take a receipt.
Two periods are fixed by the Act. Under section 13(4) the committee must meet at least once every three months. Under section 13(3) it lives three years from its constitution, unless the Board reconstitutes it. A lapsed committee is a common reason a file sits still for a year.
Money does move, but towards the committee. Minutes of the Board's 74th meeting of 23 June 2017, published by the Trust, set the funding: Rs 200 for each guardianship appointed and uploaded, Rs 250 per quarter for the online report, and Rs 500 for a field visit. The home visit is a funded step, not a favour.
Section 15 is short. A guardian shall, wherever required, “either have the care of such person of disability and his property or be responsible for the maintenance of the person with disability”.
Section 16 turns that into paperwork with dates. Within six months of appointment you must give the appointing authority an inventory of immovable property, all assets and movable property received on the person's behalf, and a statement of claims and debts. That goes in Form C under rule 27(1). Within three months of the close of every financial year you must furnish an account of the property in your charge, the sums received and disbursed, and the balance remaining. That is Form D under rule 27(2). Both go through the Submit Form C and D page on the Trust's site, and they answer any later allegation about the person's money.
Section 17(1) lets a parent, a relative or a registered organisation apply to remove a guardian who is abusing or neglecting the person, or misappropriating or neglecting the property. The committee may then remove the guardian, for reasons recorded in writing, and appoint a new one; section 17(3) makes the removed guardian hand over all property and account for every rupee.
Rule 17 sets a procedure that moves faster than most district processes. The committee appoints an investigation team of at least three, including a representative of a parent organisation and one of an association for the disabled. The team reports within ten days, and the committee decides within ten days of that report, after hearing the guardian.
A guardianship application has no published decision deadline, which is exactly why RTI works here. The committee's records sit in the Collector's office, so address the request to the Public Information Officer, Office of the District Collector, and copy the convener. Find the officer through the PIO directory, and ask for records, not opinions:
Write down the date you hand the guardianship file in. That date is what the RTI hangs on.
The reply is due in 30 days. Draft it with the AI RTI drafting tool, track the deadline on the RTI timeline calculator, and if nothing arrives, escalate with the first appeal builder. The fee is small and set by your State's rules, and applicants below the poverty line pay nothing; see our guide to the RTI Act 2005. For the wider method of turning a stalled file into a decision, The RTI Playbook is the long version.
No. Parents are natural guardians only while a person is a minor. At 18 that ends, and no law makes a parent the automatic guardian of an adult. The National Trust describes its guardianship provision as filling exactly this gap, because other guardianship laws are written for minors.
Not on his own. Regulation 12 says no single male is to be considered as guardian for a female ward. A male applicant is given co-guardianship with his spouse, who is treated as the master co-guardian, and the Regulation states that if he has no spouse the application will be of no avail. The practical path is for another eligible relative, or a registered organisation, to apply.
Regulation 11 sets the order. Where both parents are gone through death, desertion or conviction, siblings may apply, jointly or singly with the reason explained. Failing them a relative may apply, and failing everyone a registered organisation. Where the person is destitute or abandoned, the committee may direct a registered organisation to apply.
The Act puts no expiry on the order. What does expire is the committee: under section 13(3) it works three years from its constitution, unless reconstituted. Your obligations do not expire either. Form C is due once, within six months of appointment. Form D is due every year, within three months of the close of the financial year.
Show the branch manager the Reserve Bank circular dated 13 January 2014, which tells banks to be guided by the order of the competent authority under the National Trust Act for opening and operating accounts. Then ask for the refusal in writing. A written refusal is what you escalate, and it turns an argument at the counter into a document.
No. The committee may accept certified documents and affidavits on matters of fact, and may examine witnesses, though it cannot summon anyone. It may co-opt a lawyer, a civil surgeon, a psychiatrist and the district social justice officer as members. A complete Form A and an accurate Part B property statement help more than counsel.