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Only around 150 members are active” out of a supposed 765, stated trustee and chairman of the managing committee of the Ripon Club (RC), Xerxes Dastur. He was addressing around 25 members at the 134th and 135th annual general meeting (AGM) held on the third floor of the Club premises on June 15, 2022. The onslaught of Covid presumably prevented the previous year’s AGM from being held.
The 138-year-old RC earned a profit of Rs 9,99,104 (USD 12,761) in the financial year 2020-2021, after incurring a loss of Rs 7,17,255 (USD 9,161) the year before, states their annual report. Income increased by over seven lakh rupees to Rs 33,27,037 (USD 42,350), while the deficit reduced by around five lakh rupees to Rs 10,56,556 (USD 13,495). Around 200 bills to members are generated every month, Dastur observed.
Over the two-year period, 13 new members were enrolled while 19 resigned and 10 died — an overall loss of 16. The monthly catering billing is less than Rs 2,00,000 (USD 2,554), said Dastur. Dues of around Rs 16,00,000 (USD 20,437) are outstanding from members, he added. A consensus was reached to display the names of defaulters on the Club’s notice board. Despite the low utilization of the Club premises, Dastur said the trustees and managing committee members opposed making single Parsi women full-fledged members of RC. They can only be associate members or lady members without the right to vote or attend meetings. Married women are barred from membership. Only the husbands qualify. Dastur made the comment in reply to a member’s email dated June 6 and an inquiry made in person at the meet. The email stated: "The misogynic clause ‘No associate member male or female or lady member is entitled to vote or attend the meeting,’ continues to appear in the explanatory note to the agenda of the Ripon Club’s annual reports. As a member, I find this restriction abhorrent. It defies understanding how in the year 2022, an association of supposedly intelligent and capable Parsi males could permit such a sexist rule to exist. 
"A vote on whether to admit women as full-fledged members or not was promised in 2017. We were subsequently informed the vote had been postponed as a compromise settlement was being negotiated with the landlord regarding their suit for eviction. Since this matter has not been finalized, the vote on admitting women members has been kept in abeyance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If there is any clause incorporated in the consent terms that pertains to the admission of women as full-fledged members of the Club, the members should be so informed. The Rent Act certainly would not bar them from membership. Has the landlord objected to women being full-fledged members of the Club? If not, why is the membership issue not being put to vote?”
A query was also addressed on June 6 to noted lawyer Burjor Antia who is a trustee of N. M. Wadia Charities, the landlord, about whether the trust "has any objection to women being made full-fledged members of the Club.”
Antia promptly replied the same day that the "Wadia Trust has not made any rules or regulations about Ripon Club or any woman being made full-fledged members of the Ripon Club as it is their internal matter.”
The landlord had filed a suit for eviction against RC in 2010. A compromise had been worked out whereby in exchange for withdrawal of the suit the Club would hand over the fourth floor premises to the landlord but would share in any revenue earned by licensing the area to a third party. "About the negotiations which were going on between the Wadia Trust and Ripon Club, I may add that they are going on for last two to three years and nothing has materialized in spite of the draft consent terms being approved by the overwhelming majority members of the Club,” Antia noted.
Dastur stated at the AGM that no progress had been made on the compromise since a member, Khushru Zaiwala, had filed a suit challenging the eviction order and the proposed settlement and named RC as a party.
When asked by Parsiana via email on June 16 whether Zaiwala’s suit had prevented any settlement being executed, Antia replied the next day, "I wish to clarify that there is no suit for injunction filed by Mr Zaiwala against the Trust to my knowledge nor is there any injunction order served upon the Trust till date. Mr Zaiwala’s intervention application in the pending suit between the Trust and the Club is also rejected by the Small Causes Court at Bombay and I understand that some appeal is filed by Mr Zaiwala but no orders are passed therein. Therefore, Mr Zaiwala’s frivolous objections will not come in the way or bar any settlement which has been approved by more than 700 members of the Club in the AGM. The Honorable Court normally does not take cognizance of the frivolous objections raised by the minority members (in this case only by Mr Khushru Zaiwala and Mr Rayomand Zaiwala).”