The decision to permit conversion of leave and license (L&L) agreements into tenancies, taken by the three Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) majority trustees on the eve of the trusteeship elections for seven seats, "broadly amounts to a premeditated inducement to voters,” ruled the chief election commissioner (CEC) Cmde Aspi Marker (retd) on April 8, 2022.
"Considering that this proposal to convert L&L into tenancy was a matter of discussion for so many years in the past, passing the resolution on February 21, 2022 just the evening before the final hearing of the election petition was to commence the next morning, does indicate that the resolution was passed keeping in mind the imminent elections and the curbs which were proposed to be imposed post the Scheme and CoC (code of conduct) coming into force,” Marker observed.
The ruling followed a complaint filed by BPP trustee Kersi Randeria against BPP chairwoman Armaity Tirandaz, trustees Viraf Mehta and Xerxes Dastur claiming the trio had "breached the provisions of… CoC which amounted to a ‘corrupt practice.’” All four trustees are seeking re-election in the May 29 election.
Marker explained that a tenant is protected by law while a licensee does not have statutory protection and is governed by the license. Tenancy is "undoubtedly a superior legal right to the premises they occupy (and) is granted to them just before the elections and effectively for no consideration at all. It is pertinent that the stamp duty and the registration charges to be paid by such voters can never be construed as consideration for being granted a substantially superior legal right.”
Marker noted that "Randeria said that he was not against converting L&L into tenancy. On the contrary, he wanted the BPP to bear the burden of stamp duty payable by the licensees upon such conversion under the Maharashtra Stamp Act which according to him is around Rs 175 crores (USD 22,900,212), [around 2,300 flats multiplied by an average stamp duty of Rs 7,50,000 (USD 9,791) per flat] so that the economically weaker sections of the community also could avail of this benefit... However, he was against the attempt of the respondents to push these measures with undue haste ... with the clear objective of inducing voters to vote for them at the forthcoming election…
"Randeria further alleged that the respondents had breached the verbal undertaking given across the bar to the Bombay High Court on January 12, 2022 to the effect that no major policy decision would be taken by the outgoing trustees.”
A decision taken on March 22 by the majority trustees "approving the conversion of three L&L (agreements) into tenancies” was "a brazen violation of the CoC,” alleged Randeria.
In their submission to the CEC, Mehta and Dastur asserted "that the proposal to convert L&L into tenancy was in the public domain since the elections of 2008… as also in articles written in the Parsi media by (them) for the last three years; and therefore, this is not a new proposal or policy decision.”
The trio argued that as the election scheme along with the CoC came into effect only on March 1, 2022 even if the conversion "amounted to a ‘major policy decision,’ there was no prohibition on February 21, 2022 upon the trustees doing so; the resolution passed on March 22, 2022 was merely an implementation of the decision already taken by the trustees on February 21.” Mehta alleged that Randeria had attempted to induce voters by stating the BPP should bear the stamp duty payable.
Marker countered that the March 22 resolution was passed after the CoC had come into effect. He noted the decision, though an inducement to voters, did not constitute a "corrupt practice” as Randeria "supports the same.” The March 22 resolution "shall not be further acted upon, until new trustees assume office. No further L&L application of this nature shall be processed/converted or acted upon, until new trustees assume office,” Marker ruled.