A miscellaneous petition filed in the Bombay High Court this July challenging the results of the May 29, 2022 Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trusteeship elections for seven seats alleges several irregularities occurred in the election process and the results should therefore be "set aside” or "quashed.”
The nine petitioners include Kaikhushroo Irani who unsuccessfully contested the election, Yasmin Mistry who stood for election then withdrew and former BPP trustee Noshir Dadrawala who did not seek reelection.
The 27 respondents include the present BPP trustees, some of the unsuccessful candidates, the chief election commissioner Cmde Aspi Marker (retd), five commissioners, four assistant commissioners and the professional services firm, Deloitte.
The petition to be posted for circulation by Justice B. P. Colabawalla alleges, "the entire election process was vitiated at all stages. The machines were malfunctioning... The validating agency did not submit its report for an extraordinary long period of time... In spite of repeated complaints, no steps were taken by Respondent No 2 (Marker) to preserve the electronic voting machines, chips and the consoles...
"All the seven successful candidates in the elections, as well as their authorized representatives, were initially extremely agitated at the failures, delays and chaos on election day... The malfunctioning of various election systems and equipment has led to the potential for voter impersonation as well as turning away of eligible voters, both of which are, by themselves, grounds for setting aside the entire election process...
"The Petitioners therefore submit that it is in the interests of justice and fair play…that the election result declared on May 29, 2022 be set aside and/or be quashed.”
The petitioners requested the court "pending the hearing and final disposal… to pass appropriate orders… to produce and deposit records, contracts entered into and equipment.” The seven elected trustees should also be restrained "from taking any major policy decisions on the day-to-day affairs and management” of the BPP.