The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has served a legal notice on the Bombay Samachar Private Limited (BSPL) alleging that the advertorials published in the Gujarati daily on February 18 and March 12, 2017 "are concocted misrepresented, false and have been written and published with an ulterior motive so as to demean/tarnish the reputation of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet and its trustees… More over the article published on March 12, 2017 prima facie appears to be in breach and contravention of the consent terms filed by the trustees of the BPP before the honorable Bombay High Court on March 10, 2017.” The notice dated March 14, 2017 was served by Mulla and Mulla and Craigie Blunt and Caroe partner Yezdi Dandiwala on the BSPL.
The notice called upon the Gujarati daily newspaper owned by the Cama family to "immediately provide us the names and details of the person or persons who have written the said articles and paid your newspaper to avail the ‘advertorial’ space.” The lawyer stated once the names are known his clients would prosecute/proceed against those responsible for "the said defamatory articles.”
(From left), 1st row: Yazdi Desai, Armaity Tirandaz, Muncherji Cama, Noshir Dadrawala;
2nd row: Kersi Randeria, Zarir Bhathena, Viraf Mehta, Dinshaw Mehta
The articles referred to in the Parsi Darshan (PD) column were published presumably at the behest of former BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta. PD contradicted the facts and figures stated by the present BPP chairman Yazdi Desai in his BPP Connect column in the Parsi Times (PT) weekly.
The February 12 PD column carried three articles. The first one an "Appeal to the community from the BPP staff,” allegedly written by unnamed employees who claimed they were caught in the crossfire between the warring trustee fractions: "We are scared that if we disobey the majority trustees, we will be removed from our jobs and then told to leave the house given to us by our akabars… The case of dismissal from service of Doongerwadi manager Jimmy Poonawalla and greenery expert Dara Elavia are blatant examples of punishment for disobedience to the majority trustees, (and) whose terminal benefits are also withheld till they vacate the BPP quarters.”
The other two pieces "Arbitrary increase in service charges” and "Yazdi Desai needs to man up or resign!” alleges the increase in service charges "was approved in November 2016 by only three trustees — Yazdi Desai, Kersi Randeria and Noshir Dadrawala with Viraf Mehta and Armaity Tirandaz opposing any increase.” The third piece lists various grievances against Desai.
The headline of the PD column of March 12 stated "BPP makes a whopping profit of Rs 6 crores in 2015-16 alone, yet increases services charges.” The column goes on to allege "the figures shown in last week’s PT (a loss of Rs 6.64 crores) for financial year April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016 do not tally in any way with the audited figures filed with the income tax department and the office of the charity commissioner for the same year.” The column alleges that the BPP "keeps three sets of accounts, one of BPP baugs where the whole administration and office staff salary is shown as expenses, another for Wadia Baugs and a third for income tax and charity commissioner purposes.”
In his BPP Connect column of March 4, 2017 Desai has stated that fixed deposits of Rs 134 crores were in the R. N. and N. N. Wadia Baugs’ accounts. These funds, according to Desai, "cannot be utilized for non-housing activities of the BPP. Therefore Rs 30 crores from the Wadia Baug funds are earmarked to be utilized for constructing two residential towers at a BPP complex in Goregaon in the next one year.” In contrast, the BPP has fixed deposits of Rs 105 crores.
According to Desai, the BPP earned interest of Rs 13.22 crores which covered a deficit on colonies (Rs 3.64 crores), establishment expenses (Rs 2.4 crores), Doongerwadi (Rs 2.84 crores), mobed scheme (Rs 1.84 crores), maintenance of two agiaries (Rs 0.23 crores), education support (Rs 0.82 crores), medical help (Rs 1.58 crores), legal expenses (Rs 1.31 crores), doles for poverty (Rs 2.75 crores), second and third child assistance (Rs 0.53 crores) and 50% contribution to building repairs (Rs 1.6 crores).
"All this has left the BPP with a deficit of Rs 6.64 crores in the financial year 2015-2016,” states Desai.
The PD advertorial alleges the BPP’s gross total income was Rs 39.98 crores "as per income tax returns filed” as versus the figure of Rs 13.22 crores cited by Desai. The discrepancy in the figures is due to the PD figures including the income from the Wadia baugs.
The response from the Bombay Samachar was not known at the time of going to press.
Papers to be accessible
There has been a vicious battle between Desai and Dinshaw over the past few months with both using the Parsi media to state their point of view. The present warring BPP trustees on March 10, 2017 signed consent terms in the petition pending before 
Justice Sharukh Kathawalla (pictured) by which the two BPP trustees Armaity Tirandaz and Viraf Mehta who were earlier denied access to official Punchayet papers would receive all communications. The consent terms signed by all seven trustees, including Muncherji Cama whose trusteeship position is being disputed, have not been made public by the BPP. A copy obtained by Parsiana states, Viraf "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” pertaining to his father Dinshaw. With the exception of this "on receipt of a request from any trustee to any staff… for access to any information, files, documents, records and the like (the BPP staff) shall forthwith produce the same for inspection as well as provide photocopies of the same, as requested.” The chief executive (CEO) and other designated staff will maintain a register of the papers given, make a note of the pages provided, the "time of giving the file and the time at which the file is received back.” All the pages will be numbered and the "documents shall be accessed/inspected by a trustee in the office of the trust in the presence of the designated administrative staff.” The draft agenda of the weekly meeting along with the draft minutes of the previous meeting will be circulated to all trustees on the preceding Friday.
The proceedings of every trustee meeting will be audio and video recorded by the CEO/deputy CEO and will remain "in safe custody with the administration… 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… 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.”
The trustees will keep all confidential discussions or matters of a sensitive nature to themselves. While any trustee can express his/her point of view "they shall do so in a dignified manner and without attributing any personal motive to any of the trustees.”
And lastly "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.”
Kathawalla reportedly asked Dinshaw to be a party to the consent terms but the former BPP chairman turned down the request noting that the present trustees had filed criminal cases against him and maligned his name. If the cases were withdrawn, he would consider signing the consent terms but that proposal did not find favor with the trustees present, it was reported.