The next date of the hearing at the Ahmedabad High Court in the matter of the shifting of the holy fire from Pestonji Aslaji Doongaji Agiary at Bharuch to the recently constructed agiary building in New Bombay is fixed for June 13, 2017, Sharukh Doctor, trustee of the New Bombay Zoroastrian Association Charitable Trust (NBZACT) informed Parsiana on April 26.
Meanwhile, an anonymous WhatsApp message circulated on or around April 16 alleged that "the reformist lobby” was trying to shift the holy fire from Bharuch secretly "by a car” to the New Bombay place of worship "and convert it to a universal agiary for all.” Doctor responded with an email dated April 20 on behalf of NBZACT that "our Agiary coming up at New Bombay will be a traditional agiary, open only to Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians. This has also been clearly specified by us in the agreement to lease with CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra) signed in 2013.”
Doctor’s email clarifies that the "matter of the Agiary at New Bombay and the holy fire of Doongaji Agiary being shifted were discussed with all the Vada Dasturs (who) ... have given their approval in writing.” Addressing the observation in the anonymous WhatsApp message that the trustees of the Bharuch Agiary propose to sell off the land on which the building stands, Doctor has clarified that the Bharuch Anjuman has mandated that a dadgah be preserved at the Bharuch Agiary, and "hence cannot sell the said property.”