The Managing Committee (MC) of the Parsi Lying-In Hospital (PLIH) has filed a suit and an originating summons in the Bombay High Court against the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) over a dispute on the redevelopment of the 117-year-old institution (see "Battlelines drawn?” Parsiana, October 21, 2012).
The suit papers were served on the BPP on November 2, 2012. The MC claims as per the PLIH trust deed the BPP is obligated to carry out their instructions. The MC runs the maternity Hospital but the property vests with the BPP. The PLIH has been defunct for the past 15 years or so and the lease for the land from the Bombay Municipal Corporation expired around 20 years ago.
Several prominent doctors who banded together to form a corporation called Krimson Health Venture Private Limited entered into an agreement with MC to convert PLIH into a specialty orthopedic hospital. The 100 crore rupees (around US $ 18,000,000) project would generate a lease rental for the PLIH trust and also offer free orthopedic medical care to a certain quota of Parsi patients.
With the resignation of MC member Muncherji Cama, who is also a trustee of the BPP, the path was cleared for proceeding with the litigation. Subsequent to Cama’s resignation Kersi Randeria, Dinshaw and Karl Tamboly and Hoshang Khumbatta, vice president and business head of Godrej and Boyce have been co-opted on the PLIH MC. An industrialist, Randeria owns the Parsi Times and has been active in BPP trusteeship elections. Dinshaw is a former trustee of the BPP and heads the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Funds in India; Karl is a lawyer.