On September 29, 2010 the Bombay High Court set aside orders of the Charity Commissioner (CC) directing that contempt proceedings be issued against the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) in connection with a special audit of the trust’s accounts, reported The Times of India (TOI) on September 30, 2010.
The BPP had moved the High Court to challenge the CC’s order of April 8, 2010 and, after hearing the trust’s counsels Aspi Chinoy and Percy Ghandy, the bench comprising Justices D. K. Deshmukh and N. D. Deshpande quashed the order. The judges also quashed the contempt application made by Percy Patel, a leader of the Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA) before the CC (see "Contempt charge stands,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, May 21, 2010). Patel had dragged the BPP, state government and the state law minister before the CC, alleging that they had committed criminal contempt of court by seeking to interfere in a pending case, TOI reports.
The cause of Patel’s ire was a letter sent by the BPP to the law minister protesting the deputy CC’s order of July 13, 2009 seeking Rs 1.2 crore as fees for a special audit of the trust’s funds. In its letter the BPP complained that the CC had refused to show them a copy of the investigation report on which it had relied before passing the order. Consequently, the law minister asked the CC for a detailed report. The BPP pointed out that on receiving this directive the CC provided the trustees with a copy of the special report, TOI states.
Even whilst a detailed copy of the High Court order is awaited, the special audit ordered by the CC will continue.