Justice Jamshed Pardiwalla of the Gujarat High Court has ruled on December 3, 2018 that the selling of shops to non-Parsis in a cooperative society formed exclusively for Parsis was "not against the interests of the society,” stated a news report in The Times of India dated December 6, 2018. The judgment was delivered in a dispute that originated in 1993 when Eruch Sabavala constructed and sold five shops on the ground floor of Mazda Rise Cooperative Housing Society in Sanjan and sold two to Hindus. Pardiwalla’s order directed the Society to agitate the issue of sale of shops to non-Parsis before the appropriate forum, stated the news report.
The Society had reportedly passed a resolution to expel Sabavala on three counts: for using the Society’s land for commercial purposes, not paying maintenance and for selling the property to non-Parsis. The legal battle has been waged in the civil court, the cooperative registrar, the district registrar, the Gujarat government and the state’s High Court. The order asked the Society and Sabavala to sort out the dispute regarding non payment of dues; Sabavala agreed to make the payment, the daily stated.
Earlier, a single judge of the High Court had upheld the government’s stance that Sabavala’s act of selling shops to non-Parsis was not against the interest of the Society. A division bench ordered the government to reconsider the issue. When the government stuck to its stand, the matter landed back in the High Court in 2015.