The HRD Ministry has done this after getting a favourable opinion from Attorney General Soli Sorabjee that the amendments which made Sonia Gandhi, R Venkataraman, P V Narasimha Rao, H Y Sharada Prasad and Kapila Vatsayan life trustees were not valid. Though the BJP-led Government had been debating this move for some time now, it says it was constrained to move decisively when its letters on November 3 and January 27 to the IGNCA were not answered.

The IGNCA was set up in 1987 as an autonomous trust under the HRD Ministry and originally had seven trustees -- with the late Rajiv Gandhi beingpresident and Kapila Vatsayan (now a life trustee) being member-secretary. The Government had provided a fund of Rs 50 crore and an additional Rs 84 crore for a new building.

According to the HRD affidavit, the amendments to the original trust deed are invalid on three grounds: because no ``prior written approval'' was sought from the Government; because no clearance was asked for from the Finance and HRD ministries; and the move wasn't brought before the Cabinet for reconsideration.

In the affidavit, the Government has said: ``The checks and balances built into the system'' were removed by the 1995 amendment. It has added: ``Such a fundamental alteration is against the conception of the trust by its makers. No power of amendment provided in the trust deed can be used to alter its basic structure.''