HIGH COURT RESTORES PARITY AMONG ALL TRUSTEES OF BPP

TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN:

Information for Members of the Parsi Community

Subject: High Court Order dated 10th March, 2017

In

Miscellaneous Petition (L) No. 19 of 2017

1. Armaity R. Tirandaz

2. Viraf D. Mehta …Petitioners

(Trustees of Bombay Parsi Punchayet)

Vs.

1. Bombay Parsi Punchayet

2. Yazdi Desai

3. Kersi Randeria

4. Noshir Dadrawalla

5. Zarir Bhathena

6. Muncherji N.M. Cama

(Trustees of Bombay Parsi Punchayet)

…Respondents

———————————————————

Dear Community Members,

We have had the good fortune of senior counsels and senior solicitors intervening in the above Petition in the High Court and with the assistance of the Court all parties to the Petition, with legal advice, signed the consent terms recording their consensus and presented it to the Hon’ble Court for orders.

Without commenting on the contents of the consent terms or the orders passed in terms thereof, we are publishing both of them for your independent objective consideration and information.

Consent Terms dated 10th March, 2017

“IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION

MISCELLANEOUS PETITION (L) NO. 19 OF 2017

1. Armaity R. Tirandaz, Trustee of )

the Bombay Parsee Punchayet )

Residing at 780, Karani Mansion )

JameJamshed Road, )

Mumbai 400014 )

2. Viraf D. Mehta )

Trustee of the )

Bombay Parsee Punchayet )

Residing at Rusi Mehta Building )

3rdFloor, 49A, Warden Road, )

Mumbai 400 026 ) … Petitioners

V/s.

1. Bombay Parsee Punchayet )

Having its office at 209, )

Dadabhai Naoroji Road, )

Fort, Mumbai 400001 )

2. Yazdi Desai )

3. Kersi Randeria )

4. Noshir Dadrawalla )

5. Zarir Bhathena )

6. Muncherji N. M. Cama )

Trustees of the )

Bombay Parsee Punchayet )

Having their office at )

209, Dadabhai Naoroji Road, )

Fort, Mumbai 400 001. ) …Respondents

CONSENT TERMS

By consent of parties (except Respondent No.6) the following order is passed:-

The Trustees of the Respondent No.1 Trust are and shall be equally entitled to participate in all matters concerning the affairs, funds, properties and administration of Respondent No.1 Trust. For this purpose, all Trustees of Respondent No.1 Trust shall have full free and complete access to all the information pertaining to the Trust and be entitled to inspect all files, documents, records such as minutes book, account books, housing files, financial statements, legal matters/ proceedings and the like of Respondent No.1 and also entitled to photocopies as may be requested by any Trustee.

Petitioner No.2 states that he will not seek access to or inspection of the file relating to or concerning Complaint No. SW/27/14 filed before the Court of the 38th Metropolitan Magistrate at Ballard Pier.

To give effect to Clause 1 above, the Parties consent to the following arrangement set out hereunder:-

3.1 On receipt of a request from any Trustee to any staff of the Respondent No.1 Trust for access to any information, files, documents, records and the like, relating to the Respondent No.1 Trust, the CEO/Dy. CEO/administrative staff of Respondent No. 1 shall forthwith produce the same for inspection as well as provide photocopies of the same, as requested.

3.2 The CEO/Dy. CEO or his designate shall maintain a register for this purpose. The register shall keep a record of inspection given and shall contain the following particulars:-

(a) Specific columns for noting the particulars sought by a Trustee, the specifications of the documents/ files being provided and number of pages being provided.

(b) Date, Trustee’s name, name of staff to whom request is made, time of giving file and the time at which the file is received back.

(c) For signatures of the CEO/Dy. CEO/administrative staff/designate and Trustee taking inspection.

3.3 All pages of any files/ documents provided to a Trustee shall be numbered consecutively by the administrative staff of the Respondent No.1 Trust.

3.4 All files/ documents shall be accessed/inspected by a Trustee in the office of the Trust in the presence of the designated administrative staff.

3.5 In the event that a Trustee seeks a photocopy of a particular file/ document, the same shall be provided forthwith by the administrative staff of the Respondent No.1 Trust after making the requisite endorsement (i.e. time and date as also name of the Trustee to whom copy is provided) on the said photocopy of the file/ document. The details of all photocopies provided to any Trustee shall be recorded in a register maintained by the CEO/ Dy. CEO or his designate for this purpose.

3.6 The CEO/Dy. CEO of Respondent No.1 Trust shall, independently and on his own accord, maintain a brief summary of the proceedings of every Trust meeting with reasonable particulars of the agenda, the discussions, the views of Trustee/s and the decisions with the votes in favour and against.

3.7 For a proposed Board meeting to be held on Tuesday the CEO/Dy. CEO of Respondent No.1 Trust shall by the preceding Friday evening circulate to all Trustees the draft agenda of the forthcoming meeting, as finalized by the Chairman. The draft agenda will be sent along with draft minutes of the previous meeting as may have been finalized by the Chairman along with the brief summary maintained by the CEO/Dy. CEO of the Trust for the proceedings of the previous meeting for confirmation by the Trustees. There will be no discussion on the contents of the brief summary of the CEO/DY.CEO. If any trustee has any objection, the same must be recorded in his/her dissent note. For a proposed Board meeting to be held on Tuesday, any Trustee may latest by 12:00 noon on the Monday prior to the meeting, send to the Chairman any item which such Trustee wants to include in the agenda. The CEO / Dy. CEO, by Monday evening will circulate to all Trustees the agenda papers along with the final agenda including therein any such item requested by a Trustee to be added. If any Trustee/s requires more/additional time to consider/study any item of the circulated agenda, then on the request of such Trustee, the said item shall be deferred and considered at the next meeting of the Trust and shall not be deferred further for any reason.

3.8 The Trustees shall finalize the minutes of a meeting at the subsequent meeting. The Chairman’s decision shall be final. In the event that a Trustee has any objection to the minutes as may be recorded or as are being sought to be finalized, such Trustee shall provide at the said subsequent meeting his/her dissent in writing on the said item in dispute. In the event of there being a dissent note, a reference to the same shall be mentioned under the relevant item of the minutes. The dissent note shall be pasted at the end of the minutes and the dissent note shall bear the endorsement as to the particulars of the item / items of the minutes to which it relates. The final minutes along with the dissenting note if any duly signed by such Trustee shall be pasted in a bound and serially numbered Minutes Book to be maintained for this purpose. The dissent note shall form part of the

final Minutes.

4. The proceedings of every board meeting of the Trustees shall be audio and video recorded by the CEO/Dy. CEO. The said record shall be saved on a separate hard disk / pen drive. The hard disk / pen drive shall be kept in a sealed cover with the signatures of Trustees present at such meeting and kept in safe custody with the administration of Respondent No.1 Trust. The same will be accessed jointly by all the trustees only in the event of any serious dispute as to what transpired at a particular Trust meeting. If any matter / item is of a sensitive nature, the Chairman may use his sole discretion to temporarily stop the audio and video recording of such items on the agenda or any part thereof. The recording will however continue for the remaining discussions. Save and except as provided in this clause, there will be no other video

or audio recording of the proceedings of any meeting

of the Trustees using mobile phone, tablet or such

device.

5. The Trustees undertake to keep all confidential discussions or matters of a sensitive nature discussed at Board meetings, information/ documents/ files accessed by them, in their capacity as Trustees, confidential.

6. Any Trustee may express his or her views on any issue pertaining to the Trust or any decision taken by the Trust, but they shall do so in a dignified manner and without attributing any personal motive to any of the Trustees. The Trustees further undertake to this Hon’ble Court to not directly or indirectly in any manner publish or cause to be published or provide any statement or information to any print or electronic media agency or to publish or cause to be published on social media any defamatory material.

7. No trustee shall take any steps or action to prevent the implementation of a decision taken by the majority of the trustees except by due process of law. It is clarified that a Dissenting Trustee shall not be precluded only by having acted on the majority decision and implemented the same including by signing any document/s, from adopting any legal proceedings challenging the majority decision which challenge shall be determined on its own merits.

8. Liberty to apply to this Hon’ble Court in case of difficulty in implementing any of the terms herein.

Sd/- Armaity Tirandaz Sd/- Yazdi Desai as Chairman

(Petitioner No. 1) (Respondent No. 1)

Sd/- Viraf Mehta Sd/- Yazdi Desai

(Petitioner No. 2) (Respondent No. 2)

Sd/- Kersi Randeria

(Respondent No. 3)

Sd/- M/s Federal & Rashmikant Sd/- Noshir Dadrawalla

Advocates for the Petitioners (Respondent No. 4)

Sd/- Zareer Bhathena

(Respondent No. 5)

Sd/- M/s Mulla & Mulla & CBC

Advocates for Respondent Nos.1 to 5”

Sd/- Muncherji Cama

(Respondent No.6)

Order dated 10th March, 2017

“IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION

MISCELLANEOUS PETITION (L) NO. 19 OF 2017

Armaity R. Tirandaz and another …Petitioners

Vs.

Bombay Parsee Punchayat & Ors. …Respondents

Mr. J. P. Sen, Senior Advocate, along with Mr. Gautam Ankhad, Mr. C. Rashmikant, Mr. Rohan R. Dakshini and Ms. Anuja Abhyankar, instructed by M/s. Federal & Rashmikant, for the Petitioners.

Mr. Janak Dwarkadas, Senior Advocate, along with Mr. Y. P. Dandiwala, Mr. Mutahhar Khan and Mr. Nutash Kotwal, instructed by M/s. Mulla & Mulla & Cragie Blunt and Caroe, for Respondent Nos. 1 to 5.

Mr. Chaitanya Chavan along with Mr. Yohaan Rubens, instructed by M/s. Vigil Juris, for Respondent No.6.

CORAM : S. J. KATHAWALLA, J.

DATED : 10th MARCH, 2017

(In Chamber)

P.C. :

The Learned Advocates appearing for the Petitioners and Respondent Nos. 1 to 5 have tendered Consent Terms dated 10th March, 2017. They submit that the Consent Terms be taken on record and an order be passed in terms of the Consent Terms. The Consent Terms dated 10th March, 2017, are taken on record and marked ‘X’ for identification. The Consent Terms are signed by the Petitioners and Respondent Nos. 3, 4 and 5. The Advocates for Respondent Nos. 1 and 2, on instructions, undertake that Respondent No. 2 shall sign the Consent Terms on or before 14th March, 2017 on behalf of self and Respondent No. 1. As far as Respondent No. 6 is concerned, the Advocate appearing for him states that he is indisposed and he shall sign the consent terms within a period of two weeks from today, if he so desires. The undertakings recorded in the consent terms are accepted. Order in terms of consent terms marked “X”. In the light of these consent terms, the above Petition is not pressed and is accordingly disposed of.

( S. J.KATHAWALLA, J. )”

Order dated 24th March, 2017

“IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION

MISCELLANEOUS PETITION (L) NO. 19 OF 2017

Armaity R. Tirandaz & Anr. … Petitioners

Versus

Bombay Parsee Punchayet & Ors. … Respondents

Mr. GautamAnkhed a/w. Ms. Anuja Abhyakar i/b. M/s. Federal and Rashmikant for the Petitioners.

Dr. B. B. Saraf i/b. Mulla and Mulla for Respondent Nos. 1 to 5.

Mr. Zal Andhyarujina a/w. Mr. ChaintanyaChavan, Ms. Levi Rubens, Mr. Yohaan Rubens

CORAM : S.J. KATHAWALLA, J.

DATED : 24 TH MARCH, 2017

P.C.:

Not on board. Upon mentioning, taken on board.

The Consent Terms dated 10th March, 2017 were signed by the parties except Respondent No. 6 since Respondent No. 6 was indisposed.

As recorded in the order dated 10th March, 2017, the learned Advocate appearing for Respondent No. 6 had stated that Respondent No. 6 shall sign the Consent Terms within a period of two weeks from the date of the order, if he so desires.

Today, it is submitted on behalf of Respondent No. 6 that Respondent No. 6 is desirous of signing the Consent Terms. However, since he is still advised to remain indoor, the Consent Terms may be allowed to be taken to his residence for obtaining his signature. In view thereof, the Prothonotary and Senior Master shall assign one Officer to attend the residence of Respondent No. 6 along with the Advocates for the parties to enable Respondent No. 6 to execute the Consent Terms dated 10th March, 2017.

It is clarified that the issue as to whether Respondent No. 6 continues to be a Trustee of the Bombay Parsee Punchayet, which is pending before the Charity Commissioner in Case No. ACC/2716/2015, is kept open and the present Consent Terms dated 10th March, 2017 shall not preclude any of the parties from contending that Respondent No. 6 is not a Trustee or he has ceased to be the Trustee of the Bombay Parsee Punchayet. The present Consent Terms shall not be produced before the Charity Commissioner in Case No. ACC/2716/2015 and / or any other authority in support of the contention that the parties have accepted that Respondent No. 6 is the Trustee of the Bombay Parsee Punchayet.

( S. J. KATHAWALLA, J. )”

We have deliberately avoided going into any history as we all Trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet Trust by the consent terms have on principle agreed to make a clean start for the future benefit of the community as a whole.

Armaity R. Tirandaz

Viraf D. Mehta

Date: 05-05-2017
Published on Bombay Samachar