Both major issues pending before the Bombay High Court are deterred
March was an uneventful month for the two major issues pending before the Bombay High Court.
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) election petition seeking introduction of adult franchise was once again put off for another week.
Hearings scheduled for March 15 and 21 passed without the matter being taken up. The BPP or one of the other intervenors may now have to file an application to expedite the hearing.
At first the BPP had been dragging its feet on the issue with the trustees divided amongst themselves on whether to pursue adult franchise or continue with the newly formed anjuman committee packed by The World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ).
But BPP chairman Minoo Shroff and even the BPP lawyer Iqbal Chagla reportedly convinced the erring trustees that going back on their commitment given to the court for introduction of adult franchise would be untenable.
On the issue of the originating summons seeking the court’s direction on whether the Doongerwadi bunglis could be used by those opting for alternative means to dakhmenashini, the BPP is opposing the petition.
On a hearing in March advocate Edul Bharucha urged the court to expedite the hearing while lawyer Shahrukh J. Kathawalla representing the BPP opposed the plea. Justice Roshan Dalvi concurred with Kathawalla and a date of July 9, 2007 was set for a final hearing.
As The Bombay Samachar columnist and noted lawyer Berjis Desai reported in his Parsi Tari Arsi column of March 18, 2007, "For the time being, it is (BPP trustees Dinshaw) Mehta and (Burjor) Antia who control the BPP’s legal machine. These gentlemen came to Court and bitterly opposed the expediting application of the petitioners, saying that the trustees required time up to July to study the trust deeds and file a reply.”
In February 2001 the then BPP trustees had passed a resolution authorizing use of the bunglis by those opting for alternative means. But under pressure from Mehta and Antia, the resolution was rescinded by a majority of four of the trustees, including Shroff.
"To appease WAPIZ, trustees Mehta, Antia and Dadi (Engineer) somehow convinced the chairman to agree to rescind this resolution. In a weak moment, Shroff agreed, but being a man who cherishes his own conscience more than the momentary fear of his tub thumping colleagues, is now contemplating to join (BPP trustees) Dinshaw Tamboly and Maneck Engineer in supporting this originating summons.”
Shroff’s vote is crucial because as chairman he gets an extra vote in the event of a three:three tie.
In the meanwhile causes for the surprise fire in the Cowasji Edulji Bisni Dakhma (snidely referred to as the Bisni crematorium,) are divided between the pro solar panels and pro aviary lobbies.
The pro aviary people blame the solar panels for igniting the flames that at one point jumped two stories high from the pit of the bhandar while the solar panel advocates point out the panels were shut at around by 4.30 p.m. while the fire was noticed at around 6.30 p.m.
To appease all the factions and to get to the underlying cause the BPP has filed a police complaint requesting a Parsi officer to investigate the case. The request to appoint a Parsi officer has reportedly been turned down.
In a letter to the editor of the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly, Mehta noted, "On Sunday, February 25, 2007 during inquiry and investigation, the Doongerwadi staff were categorical in their assertion that the fire was caused due to heat generated by solar concentrators. They explained that though the solar (panels) were operational, no new bodies had been consigned to the Bisni Dakhma for the last four days and since the solar mirror is supposed to rotate on an axis along with the sun’s rotation, it was probable that one of the solar cells had gone out of focus and had ignited the dry leaves and chaddar cloth in the bhandar along with the dry bodies much earlier that evening. This smoldering ember slowly started igniting and it was only around about 6.30 p.m. that the fire was visible above the dakhma walls when the khandhias along with manager (Jemi) Poonawalla rushed to the site and started fire-fighting measures with the extinguishers present at Doongerwadi and brought the fire under control in about an hour. Their reasoning seems logical and the fire may have been the result of an accident. However, the expert consultants of the solar operators as well as Dr Homi Dhalla who is in charge of the solars and its implementation have opined that the temperature of the solars was not high enough to cause the fire and they discounted the solars as a cause of the fire.”
Mehta further noted, "the khandhias were instructed by Antia and Shroff in the presence of the other trustees present there viz Engineer, Mehta and Tamboly to collect the charred remains and fill up in gunny bags and keep it in the manager’s office so that if required by the police for forensic testing later in case of a complaint, it would not get mixed with other bodies but would be available for further testing and investigation when needed. Subsequently, the filled gunny bags are kept... in the Bisni Dakhma.”
In the meanwhile the pro aviary lobby received a set back when Jemima Parry-Jones, an international authority on birds of prey in an email to a friend, published in Desai’s column of March 18, 2007, noted "they (BPP Trustees) are nuts, why on earth go to all that expense and effort (to build an aviary) when firstly they are highly unlikely to get any vultures and secondly if they do and they have a corpse full of diclofenac all the birds will die anyway. I would have thought that they need to look at their reputation, which would be irreparably damaged if they killed a whole load of vultures, knowing that humans still use diclofenac which is lethal to vultures.”