A trust is a relationship in which a person or entity (the trustee) has legal control over certain property (the trust property or trust corpus), but is bound by fiduciary duty to exercise that legal control for the benefit of the beneficiary, according to the terms of the trust and the law.
A "trust" is an obligation annexed to the ownership of property, and arising out of a confidence reposed in and accepted by the owner, or declared and accepted by him, for the benefit of another, or of another and the owner:
The person who reposes or declares the confidence is called the "author of the trust": the person who accepts the confidence is called the "trustee"; the person for whose benefit the confidence is accepted is called the "beneficiary": the subject-matter of the trust is called "trust-property" or "trust-money": the "beneficial interest" or "interest" of the beneficiary is his right against the trustee as owner of the trust-property: and the instrument, if any, by which the trust is declared is called the "instrument of trust":
A breach of any duty imposed on a trustee, as such, by any law for the time being in force, is called a "breach of trust". ….. [Section 3 of the Trusts Act, 1882]
"Trust" includes every species of express, implied, or constructive fiduciary ownership. ….. [Section 3 of the Specific Relief Act, 1877]
The determination of the question as to whether an interest of a beneficiary under a trust deed is vested or contingent has to be guided generally by the principles recognised under sections 19 and 21 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, and sections 119 and 120 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925. Apart from this the question is really one of intention to be gathered from a comprehensive view of all the terms of a document. Further, the Court has to approach the task of construction in such cases with a bias in favour of a vested interest unless the intention to the contrary is definite and clear. ….. [Rajes Kanta Roy vs. Shanti Debi PLD 1957 SC (Ind) 261]