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The petition for introducing a scheme of adult franchise for electing trustees to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet is expected to come up for a peremptory hearing before the Bombay High Court on February 8, 2007. 

The petition signed by BPP trustees Minoo Shroff, Dinshaw Mehta, Dadi Engineer, Dinshaw Tamboly, Manek Engineer and Burjor Antia states "the Parsi community has developed a very strong consensus that the Trustees should be elected by a system of universal adult franchise. The six Petitioning Trustees have also unanimously concluded that this is indeed the appropriate method of electing the Trustees. The Parsi electorate is highly literate and fully able to understand the issues involved.”

The petition drawn by noted solicitor Berjis Desai goes on to note "Every person who is registered on the General Register at least 60 days before the date of election of a Trustee shall be eligible to vote at every election of a Trustee. Each such person so eligible to vote shall have one vote at each Trustee election. Every person who is registered on the Donor Register at least 60 days before the date of election of a Trustee shall be eligible to vote at every election of a Trustee. Each Donor shall have two votes at the election of a Trustee.”

Only those who are 21 years of age or older are eligible to vote.

The present chairman of the Punchayet Minoo Shroff who would have had to resign on August 7, 2007 instead of serving his full term of 10 years, should "be entitled to continue in office for his original term expiring on August 2, 2010 but thereafter Petitioner No. 1 shall not be eligible to seek re-election,” notes the petition. Under the present scheme a trustee can hold office only for three terms of seven years each. 

"There shall be a Vice-Chairman, who shall preside at the meetings of the Trustees, in the absence of the Chairman. At their meeting held on September 26, 2006, Petitioner No. 3, Mr Dadi Engineer, has been designated as the first Vice-Chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. Whenever Petitioner No. 1 ceases to be the Chairman for any reason whatsoever, Petitioner No. 3 shall be appointed as Chairman. The arrangement is only for the present situation (and) not intended to be treated as (a) precedent.” As the second most senior trustee Mehta should have officiated but to appease his critics Mehta forsook the prerogative. 

"Presently, the Trustee senior most in office is designated as Chairman. This practice shall be continued. However, if all the Trustees, other than the Trustee senior most in office, resolve to displace the seniority principle for that particular appointment, the Chairman shall then be elected by the Board of Trustees by a majority vote (including the vote of the person elected as Chairman as well as the Trustee Senior most in office). Once a Trustee has been elected as a Chairman, he shall continue as Chairman until the expiry of his term of office as a Trustee.”

Keeping in mind the recent controversy over the resignation of four of the six trustees and the subsequent withdrawal, the petition lays out the formalities to be followed: "A Trustee seeking to resign his office shall address his letter of resignation to the Chairman. The Chairman shall convene a meeting of the Trustees to consider such resignation. Such resignation shall become effective as and from the date upon which a change report has been filed to this effect under the provisions of Section 22 of the Act.”

As The World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) reportedly have moved the High Court seeking to oust four of the present trustees, the petitioners have requested the court that "pending the hearing and final disposal of this Petition, this Hon’ble Court be pleased to direct that the Learned Charity Commissioner… and/or any other officers under the Act shall not entertain or proceed with any application or petition filed for the removal and/or any declaration that four of the Petitioner Trustees (Shroff, Tamboly, Engineer and Antia) have ceased to hold office on the ground of their purported resignations... Such an order will greatly protect the interest of this public charitable trust.”

Referring to the current election scheme passed by the Bombay High Court on August 21, 2006 which would have required the community to elect 3,000 members to the Anjuman Committee the petitioners noted the "various difficulties in finding and electing so many candidates out of such a microscopic community whose population in Mumbai is under 40,000.” Instead the trustees have asked the court "that pending the hearing and final disposal of the Petition, this Hon’ble Court be pleased to suspend the process of constituting a new Anjuman Committee and holding of election of Trustees under the presently sanctioned Scheme.” A trusteeship seat has been vacant since October 2005 following the death of trustee Silloo Kavarana.

The BPP petition also notes "the trustees shall arrange, as soon as it is practicable, to hold Trustee elections for all seven seats, with the intent and understanding that all the six Petitioner Trustees (including Chairman Shroff) shall cease to hold office as soon as the seven Trustees are elected to office.”

WAPIZ alleges the four trustees cannot withdraw their resignations and hence are no longer trustees. Some individuals have also reportedly asked the Charity Commissioner for removal of all the six trustees on grounds of irregularities allegedly committed by them.

Their fear is that if the WAPIZ contention is upheld, then the BPP will be managed by the remaining two trustees, Mehta and Engineer, of whom Mehta is anathema to them.